This past Sunday was my supervisor's Chinese wedding. After a wild weekend of birthday, booze, beats, Beijing, my roommate and I were not the most excited to spend what we thought would be a wild Sunday of wedding celebration. At any rate, we both got up fairly early to buy a gift and be a part of our supervisor's special day. Although I was a little tired, I was a was excited to see what a Chinese wedding was all about.
We arrived about 9am to the flower shop to buy a nice bouquet of flowers as a gift for our boss. We thought we had told the florist in Mandarin how much we wanted to spend, but there was a language miss-communication and she thought we meant our price as the amount of roses we wanted. (120). So but the time she finished the massive bouquet of roses she tells us 700 RMB ($125)....WHAT?!?! After running late, lighter pockets, and feeling like idiots for not understanding Mandarin as well as we thought, we headed off to the wedding.
Once we arrived at the wedding venue I felt a little better and was just ready to eat and celebrate. We sat next to our other Chinese and foreign teachers from our school. After a brief time of socializing, it was time for the ceremony to begin.
Like most Chinese weddings, my supervisor's took took place indoors in a hotel/ restaurant venue. Overall, experience was like a big gypsy reception. The dress was incredibly casual, everyone was wearing jeans and sweaters. Because the Chinese people are generally not religious, there was no pastor to overseeing wedding ceremony, just the MC. The ceremony had the bride and groom singing a duet together.There were bubbles, throwing of Sponge Bob toys. They even gave away a giant teddy bear. There also was no kissing of the bride at the end, just a bow and a pouring of wine and lighting candles. Each father of the bridal party did give speeches, and there was a tossing of the bouquet, but that was the only thing that felt familiar.The food though was excellent. Plates on top of plates of food at each table for people to enjoy. Also cigarettes, alcohol, and candy. Choose your vice.
The weirdest thing about the entire experience had to be how fast it ended. A typical wedding reception last the whole day. My supervisor's entire wedding was about 2 hrs and then everyone started going home! I was ready to get my party on and then it was time to go. I decided to take one of the bottles of liquor as a token for ending so quickly.
Overall, it was definitely a unique experience I will never forget!
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