I attended the wedding of Clara's sister this past Thursday (11/3) cuz I'd never attended a traditional Chinese style wedding (or at least not while I've been old enough to remember), and I was curious and thought it'd make for a culturally educational experience. So the way it goes down (or at least they do nowadays), things begin at the bride's (parents') house. The groom shows up with his entourage, and the bridesmaids & siblings test his resolution and intent, putting him through a series of mini-ordeals. The groom gives a series of red packets of increasing $$ value (of amounts ending in -8, cuz it's auspicious); when the siblings are satisfied, they let the groom into the house. The groom then works his way to the bride's room, more ordeals. Then the bride & groom see each other and do the usual bridey-groomy thing? Then the bride & groom leave to go to the groom's (family's) house. As they leave, the bride's father holds a red umbrella over her as she walks out. Once at the groom's (family's ) place, they have to kneel and serve tea to like every one of the groom's (older?) relatives- one couple at a time. (If they're not significantly older than the new couple, everyone just stands.) Then they go back to the bride's family's house and do the tea thing with those relatives. Then the younger relatives wish the couple a prosperous future and receive red packets. That's the general gist of things, or at least what I understood of the whole procedure. Oh yea, and the bride & groom ate (pink-coloured) dumplings at some point in there; I think that was important somehow.

But yea, apparently, there's not like an officially standardized process for this wedding thing. The elders just kinda recount how things are kinda supposed to go (or how they went in their day), and the young'uns just sort of use their imaginations? Oh, and they don't rehearse things beforehand at all; come wedding day, they just wing it completely. Bright colors (especially red, of course) appear to be important in the whole thing; I was asked not to dress up in black & white. And there was food like everywhere too; dunno if that's like a part of the tradition, or if it's just Singaporean- Singaporeans do love their food. (Well, I dunno, I guess that's like saying black people like their chicken... and watermelon, hahaha. =P *ahem* ...in that one could question the validity of both stereotypes.)

Afterwards, the reception had a lot of the makings of a Western style reception. The wedding cake wasn't real though. The bride & groom made a show of putting a knife into something resembling a cake, but that's all there is to it- you don't eat it afterwards. The food was served in a hybrid of Chinese & Western styles. There were many Chinese-style courses (like 9 or so, I think) but they were portioned and served to the diners individually by the wait staff, despite the presence of a lazy susan on each table. And the bride & groom, and VIP's weren't like separated from the other diners in any way to make them the center of attention. There weren't any speeches either, nor dances. Oh yea, and they do these toasts where everyone yells "Yom Seng!" (holding each syllable for like 10 seconds), which I believe translates to roughly "cheers" in Hokkien(?), prior to drinking.

But yea, the couple in question had been legally married for quite some time beforehand, but they didn't move (out of their respective families' houses and) in together until after the ceremony. This emphasizes the importance and precedence of tradition, I guess. Anyways, I think I learned a lot, and the wedding was quite a positive experience overall. Everyone was really nice to me, and I'm grateful for their hospitality in just letting a near-stranger like me join in on their special day.