Today was Fiona and Stephen’s wedding and we were all invited. Fiona is one of our best Chinese friends (and Terry’s co-teacher this year) and it was great to see what a real Chinese wedding is like. As with everything in China, it was quite the experience…
We arrived at the venue, the ‘7 Star Hotel’ (wishful thinking, Pingxiang), just before 8am. The room was elaborately decorated in white and red with lots of shiny lights and this great big fake cake. A cruel, cruel joke if ever I saw one.
Fiona and Stephen arrived and posed for some photos. Here’s the beautiful couple.
Then we all had photos with them. Not sure who the children are; I think they were just for show.
The ceremony kicked off in style. Lots of flashing lights, announcements on microphones and dramatic music that sounded like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Then it all went dark and quiet, a spotlight was shone on the aisle and Fiona and Stephen entered, singing in Chinese. They walked onto the stage and finished singing to each other amidst bubbles and smoke and the like. It was really sweet but certainly such cheese can only be acceptable in Asia.
A video was played, which was a composition of little videos we’d all made for the couple wishing them joy and happiness etc. Then the ceremony began. It was mostly in Chinese, apart from the vows which were in English. Because Terry was the ‘priest’. I couldn’t get a photo because I was too busy filming the happy event, but it was great.
Fiona and Stephen both said personal vows to each other in Chinese and there was not a dry female eye in the house. I didn’t know what they were saying but it was very moving.
After the ceremony was over, Jav and Taz sang a love song in Chinese, X Factor style.
Then there was a banquet. It was still only about 9.30am at this point but the red wine and the ‘liqueur’ came out, as did the chicken feet.
We took some more photos.
After this we traipsed to Fiona’s parents’ house, finishing off our wine as we went. True British class, right there.
At Fiona’s was a strange ritual where all the girls tried to prevent Stephen coming into the room. Until he gave us all money; then we let him in.
He then 'took Fiona away'. It was quite an emotional occasion as she had to say goodbye to her parents, symbolically leaving the family forever and joining Stephen’s family.
Next, we headed to Fiona and Stephen’s new apartment to eat giant fruit.
At some point everyone left the apartment, including Fiona and Stephen. After a while we decided it might be time for us to leave too. So we wandered back to the college.
