Taiwan weddings
As Ted and I were talking over dinner tonight, I realized we never wrote about the wedding we went to last week – or the one a couple of months ago, either. (We have a young company, so there are lots and lots of people getting married and having babies – often doing the latter about <9 months after the former.)
Taiwan brides have one major advantage over US brides: they get to wear *three* fancy dresses, and they don’t have to take out a mortgage to get them, either. Most dresses here are rented. For the earlier wedding we went tot he ceremony as well as the reception; mostly, only the family go to the ceremony, though there were a few other people from work there. That one was a Christian ceremony, not very much different than an American one except for being in Chinese. The bride wore a western-style wedding dress and the groom wore a tux, and added white gloves. The minister was great; she was somehow able to be entertaining even when we couldn’t understand a word. Unfortunately, an older man took over for a lot of it and he wasn’t quite as amusing. One big difference was at the beginning of the ceremony, when the minister asked everyone to clap for the bride’s family! And the groom’s family! And their friends from Tainan! And their friends from church! And the people from the groom’s company! And the people from the bride’s company! And so on! …. that part went on for a while.
After the ceremony, there were pictures of various groups, and again we went through all the permutations of groups having their photos taken with the bride and groom. There were even a few with us and other people from work.
For the second wedding, we just went to the reception. Both times, one of the groom’s friends from work ushered us to one of several tables with small ASML (our company) signs on them. At both weddings, the guests wore anything from suits and dresses to jeans. There was music (last week’s wedding was notable for having a Japanese singer’s cover of “Country Roads, Take Me Home” and Jambalaya”) and slideshows with photos of the bride and groom – the engagement photos Taiwan is famous for, but also childhood and family photos, and photos of the two together over their relationship. There was a table out front where we left the traditional red envelope with a money gift (you give $2000 or $3600 NT, because those are lucky numbers – Taiwan dollars are around $32NT to $1 US or $45 NT to 1 euro).
Once everyone was seated, the bride and groom made their first grand entrance, preceded by a flower girl and a couple of attendants. This time the bride was still wearing her white wedding dress. (I think that’s a relatively recent custom; white is the color of funerals and it used to be considered bad luck to wear it to a wedding.) They walked up front and were announced, and then there were some speeches. the first time Ted escaped, but the second time he had to make one, as the groom’s boss. (Fortunately this groom was considerate enough to warn him beforehand!) The second wedding had *lots* more speakers, including a mayor; it seemed the two families had some unspoken competition going for who brought more important speakers.
After the speeches the food began – traditional Taiwanese feasts, in which course after course is brought out and placed on a big revolving platform so each guest can help him or herself. This is great for us, because you get to taste everything without being stuck with a lot of something you dislike. There were lobster salads (at both weddings), jellyfish, two or three soups, shrimp, small make-it-yourself pork sandwiches, and any number of things I can’t name, finishing with fruit and dessert.
Sometime in the middle of it all, the lights are dimmed and the bride and groom make their second entrance. He’s still in the tux (and gloves) but now she’s in a beautiful sparkling gown. Both of the brides we saw wore champagne beige for their second gown, but I think that’s just coincidence (and also a flattering color for Taiwanese women). At the second wedding, just after that they told everyone to look under their chair to see who at each table got to come up and receive a small gift from the bride and groom. Ted won the gift for our table and received a small pot of local honey.
After dinner’s over there’s the third entrance, where the poor groom’s still in his one outfit, but the bride gets to wear a splendid red ballgown. (Red is a lucky color.) At the earlier wedding, they didn’t really do a big third entrance, just stood at the door to say goodbye to everyone That was a fairly short wedding, beginning at 6 and ending at 9 or 9:30. We left the second one at 9:30 (I wasn’t feeling well) and there were still a course or two to come, so I think that was a fancier wedding. (It’s surprisingly hard to tell, when you don’t know the local cues well – you just have to picture us sort of boonie-crashing through the culture, observing as much and asking as many questions as we can to figure the way.)
This Sunday we leave for South Africa, so it will be a weekend of running errands and then sitting on a plane for far too long (again). Then we have a week back before we both have business trips (and for me, house-hunting) in the Netherlands. So don’t expect any new entries here for a couple of weeks, but hopefully when we get back we’ll have some great photos to post.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:26 am
So interesting! Thank you!