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Our Wedding Summary
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On the Big Day, I got up at 7:00am and the hairdresser arrived late at my
home 'cos he blew a tire on the highway. At 8:00am the makeup lady
arrived to find that my rashes were not as bad as I said they were
{started having rashes right after I returned to Hong Kong after 3 months
in US, 2 weeks before the wedding). At 8:30am, the bridesmaids
arrived and they helped decorate the house with Chinese calligraphy.
At 9:00am, the groomsmen arrived to decorate my dad's car as we
used it as the bridal car. According to the Chinese tradition
somehow modified by mischievous Hong Kong bridesmaids, Kelvin
has to pick me up from my house {this part is tradition} and while
doing so must be tortured by my good friends {Hong Kong customs}.
Anyway, in order to see me Kelvin had to:
At around 10:30am, he finally got to see me and we then served
tea to our parents (order all wrong...nobody knew how we should
have done it and my parents didn't know either....the good thing is
they all drank their tea and gave us 'red packets'!!!)
Then we had to rush back to Kelvin's house because his parents had
consulted the 'Chinese Calendar' and said that we had to get back
to their house by 11:00pm. The groomsmen followed us with the car
but they forgot the way. Kelvin spent the whole journey giving
directions over the mobile phone. I thought that was funny.
We got to his house just on time. Served tea to all of his family
and close relatives. We then headed for lunch.
The church ceremony was held at a Protestant church with EXTREMELY
strict rules. No photography is allowed once the ceremony starts
and the videographer couldn't stand up during the ceremony.
We got to the church at 1:00pm and the ceremony starts at 3:00pm.
I changed from a Red Chinese †X„T (chi-bao) into a western style wedding
gown with lace top and organza dress with white roses sewn randomly on
the dress. [This gown holds special meaning for me because my dad designed it for me. ]
The makeup lady came and refreshed my makeup and had
to go home.
At 3:00pm the ceremony started. My dad gave me away and he was
very nervous about it. He held on real tight to my hand when I
put my hand into his arm. I thought it was sweet. Our ringbearer and
flower girl were great [at 6, the ringbear already told his mom he wanted
to marry the flower girl when he first met her...talk about love at
first sight].
Then some of our friends showed up with camcorders
[very nice of them, but we did not know they were going to tape us]
and forgot our warnings and started moving around. The pastor got
really mad and told them to go back to their seats. The whole
guests were stunned and I was a bit concerned that we have upset
the pastor. Kelvin was laughing under his breath 'cos he caught his
friend's funny posture when he froze as the pastor reprimanded him.
Anyway, the ceremony went on and our fellowship sang us a beautiful
"Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring". Then we exchanged our rings with some problems.
His ring was too tight
and mine was too loose [stress stress did it...]. We were pretending
to be wearing them. It was funny also. :)
After the ceremony, we went back to the church to pose for pictures
and the pastor instructed us to 'unveil' and exchange rings again.
The guests were confused and then when they realized what is
happening, they laughed. When we walked down the aisle once more, they
applauded again with good spirit.
Then we stood in the sun and took pictures for almost an hour.
That's how we realize you can get tan despite a lot of makeup and
foundation.
We got to the reception site on time. The site is a beach resort and
we were having our reception by the pool. Little lights decorated the
palm trees surrounding the pool and the weather was nice and cool.
I went into the hotel room to freshen up and changed into a blue and
black chiffon Chinese Chi-Bau. Instead of putting a few tiny red rose
clips on my hair as in the morning or white beads as in the afternoon,
my MOH helped me to put 4 or 5 tiny gold ribbons on my hair. During
this time, the bridesmaids who were assigned to take care of
reception arrangements found out that the site manager was very late
in setting up the place. Luckily, non of the guests have noticed the
delay as they just started arriving.
We started the cake-cutting at 7:00pm. Our pastor gave a brief
sermon as he did not get a chance to do so earlier since we had to do
the ceremony at the Protestant church which is one of the legal places
where we can get the marriage licence and have the ceremony at
the same time.
As it turned out, 32 more people came than we had expected. [See,
RSVP doesn't always work. Some people change their mind and some
you can't reach on the phone]. We planned for 160. 192 showed up.
We cleared out all of the food in the hotel fridges. The reception
site isn't really experienced about having so many people so they're
understaffed. As a result, there's only 1 line for food and so
our guests had to wait in line for a while before getting food.
Kelvin and I stood in line and talked with them and tried to entertain
them. The groomsmen were also very helpful and they helped to set
up extra tables and chairs for the latecomers.
We were afraid people will be bored but they seemed to be enjoying
the nice sea breeze and the romantic atmosphere. They did put on the
wrong CD once and I don't think everyone enjoyed Italian opera as I did
but that was minor, I think... :) Except when William Tell comes on
[the official horseracing theme song that the Hong Kong government
had chosen]. :)
Some guests had to leave early and most guest left at around 9:00pm.
The crazy ones played more tricks on one:
At around 11:00pm...the guests all went home. We went back to our
hotel room and passed out.
:) 2 days later, we gave a Chinese banquet 'cos Kelvin's parents
insisted. It turned out to be fun though.
In the morning, I found this huge red patch between my eyes
and I knew it was rashes again. At this point, I couldn't care
less. I went to the hairstyler and he did my hair. Then I
went home to change. Because of traffic, Kelvin and I arrived
at the Chinese restaurant real late! Late for our own Chinese
banquet? Sounds like us.
His dad got the Cognac and prepared the guest 'cloth' for us.
[a big red cloth for guests to sign their name. the wedding date
and our names are embroidered] His brother and his uncles were the ushers.
The whole family was very helpful that night.
Before the banquet, there's another hour tea-serving and picture-taking.
The funny thing is, because these are relatives
that even Kelvin has never met before, he had to keep asking his
parents whom we were serving tea to as we were supposed to say their
name with respect as we present the tea. Some of these are
supposedly close kins so he started making faces at me
since he's surprised he has never met them before the wedding day.
Then we went on to the 10 course meal. As I don't have any more
worries anymore about fitting into dresses, I absolutely pigged out.
I wore the Chinese Cheung-Sam [chi-bau] which is the same one I
wore on the wedding day morning: red and pink floral patterns
on white chiffon. I like the dress and I didn't want to change
4 or 5 times so I didn't bring any other dresses to change into.
Since Kelvin's dad knew the guy at the restaurant, the manager kept
coming to us and teaching us what to do. He was bewildered as he
asked me twice whether I was going to change, I shook my head and
continued eating. He must be thinking: talking about etiquette...hey
but I'm sure I'm the most satisfied bride food-wise! :)
When shark fin soup was being served, we went over to each table
to give toast to our guests and to thank them. After that, the
groomsmen tried to play some more tricks on us and we ended up drinking
a little bit. Kelvin can't drink because he was going to have
his Master thesis presentation the next day so I drank some beer
for him. People are bewildered but hey, I didn't waste all my
US training after all ! :)
The banquet ended at 10:00pm since it's a weekday. I had to take
off all the gold jewelry that his relatives and my relatives gave me
so I won't be robbed while going home.
Then we went home and collapsed.
