Chinese wedding

Glamorous Storey Ming, ready to walk out the door into the remnants of a typhoon, on our way to a Chinese wedding. Spike is our friend Max's best friend, and he and his bride Charlene have dined often with us (she is the expert orderer) and they are the ones who took a day to introduce us to furniture friends, go to warehouses of incredible furniture, etc. A lovely couple who so graciously invited our family to their wedding. In preparation, the Pearson women got their hair done. We all went with pictures in hand to give an idea of what we wanted. Here is Storey with five attendants!
Paige's stylist studied the picture at every turn to make sure he was doing it right. It appears to us, so far, that all the stylists are men, and the helpers are women. The girls came out looking gorgeous. I went to a French salon, paid waaaaaaay too much yuan, and came out looking like Cruella DeVille! Keep with the economical neighborhood salon!
I had run out yesterday looking for a skirt since I had only brought pants with me, and then today I found out that the white shirt I was planning to wear was completely unnacceptable as white is used for mourning, here. In the pouring rain, after getting my beehive, I ran to a store and paid waaaaaay to many yuan for this red (which means good luck and fortune) shirt.
The rats nest. Every inch of my hair was teased, back combed, and he barely even smoothed it out on top. I have wax and hairspray enough to make it through any typhoon!
Paige's finished product. Both girls slept with their do's and went to school with them this morning.
Storey well bargained for hair pin.

The photos are a little backwards, but this is our table. The lazy susan contained these bottles of hard liquor, cigarettes and matches (possibly with bride and grooms names on them) and these cold dishes. Chopped greens, shrimp, sliced chicken (sliced through the bones - they are never removed - just spit them out onto your plate), ribs, and a couple other unknown dishes.
This is the stage in the ballroom where we ate (I didn't point high enough to show the spectacular chandeliers) where all the ceremonies took place. We were at the second table back which we found out was quite an honor. Spikes cousin from America was here with her American husband, so they put us at the table with them. Family and close friends sit toward the front, the tables at the back are for more distant friends.

When we first entered, the bride and groom were here taking pictures with everyone who arrived.
This is Greg, Spikes American cousin. Very nice. He lives in the Silicon Valley, and of course works with computers. He and his wife were so nice and very generous to share their family time with us.
There were 9 hot dishes, each brought out separately. An incredibly tender beef, fish (head, tail, etc.), sea cucumber and abolone, Shark's fin soup (a huge delicacy here and delicious, we discovered), this crab dish. . . .
pigeon with cheerios sprinkled around (Storey ate most of the Cheerios!) and a few other dishes I can't remember. Each table got one piece of cake to share (we are the only ones who tasted it at our table) and there were two kinds of sweet desert balls - one was glutinous rice covered in powdered sugar with something yummy inside, the other was a pastry ball with red bean inside.
Throughout the dinner Spike and Charlene kept making appearances and had many jobs to do. They first arrived in the white wedding gown and stood on the stage while their pre-recorded vows were played on speakers. There was an exact moment when they hugged each other, kissed and then hugged again. All wonderfully staged. They then walked to the side of the stage where champagne glasses were stacked in a pyramid, and together they poured the champagne, overflowing through all the glasses. Symbol for abundance in their lives. They went through about 6 clothing changes altogether. I am not sure I got them all. This picture shows their second appearing. She was in a beautiful seafoam ball gown. They rolled a table of lit candles down the main aisle and then began distributing them to all the tables. Votive candles were floating in water, in which were two gold fish. It was beautiful, if not a little sad for us as the gold fish were fighting for air. As Ridley said, they were the happiest and luckiest of goldfish because they go to go to a wedding!
This is the actual wedding ceremony in the white dress.
They were dressed in Chinese style for this outing. There was a ceremony of offerings to the two sets of parents followed by. . . .
a fabulous dragon dance. Loud drums, fun dragon dancing and then two scrolls signifying long life and happiness together.



There was a young woman who was master of ceremonies, keeping the evening moving, and at this point was a very funny game of four couples on stage and the women had to decorate the men from all the flowers on the backdrop, and then the men had to do a catwalk down the aisle displaying the product. It was very funny, lots a cheers and applause.
This is the last dress we saw before we had to leave (we know the party raged looong after we left at 9:30). A beautiful grecian style gown. The couple went around the room and toasted, not each table, but every family or couple at each table.We left after we got our time with them.

One other event happening in the middle of all this was a paper cutting artist. He made the most intricate designs in no time. The girls were courageous and went up to try when no one else went up. He gave us several pieces. It was really an exquisite, wonderful evening. We felt so privileged to be able to see a part of Chinese life this way.


Storey has begun after school swimming, so I have to go get her as the school busses do not accomodate afterschool programs. This is particularly difficult on Friday nights when Storey has Girl Scouts after school. I waited over 20 minutes to get a taxi (usually one can be hailed in less than a minute, but Friday's are different) and then it took me an hour to get to school, which is usually a 20 minute ride. I'll have to figure this one out!

Mei is cooking yet another spectacular meal for us. Something different every night, and always delicious. She cooked for another American family some years ago and is very appreciative of the foods we would rather not try. She also cleans everything is our bottled water. Little precautions. Having Mei cook for us costs less than going out, and it's better Chinese food! We are pretty enamored with Shanghai!
M