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Originally Posted by aman
What i like about asian-weddings in comparison to american-weddings is that there's always plenty to eat. you get the 10-course meal with duck, fish, chicken, soup, all of it. other than that, i don't see much difference.
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I remember my first Asian (Chinese) wedding experience when I was visiting family in Hawai'i in the 1970s. Yes - all that awesome food. But what also caught my attention were the fifths of liquor at the center of every table. I attended a wedding night ritual in the 1980s in Shanghai where we stayed in the room of the new couple, smoked, drank, ate seeds, and generally made rude suggestions. The couple was supposed to go consumate the marriage and we were supposed to be witnesses.
As a folklorist/ethnologist I learned a lot about Cambodian weddings in Long Beach, CA. Lots of symbolism and lots of fun. A colleague mounted an exhibition in Fresno of Hmong, Lao and other Southeast Asian traditions, including weddings. And my Vietnamese friends and neighbors here in Northern Virginia practice the custom where the grooms family assembles and then goes to the brides home. I often see wedding banquets taking place often when I am in restaurants.
Because I play in a Mexican mariachi, I mostly see Mexican weddings which are pretty Catholic except for a special ceremony with candles and rope (the bride and groom get tied up with a red lariata but because it's Catholic it isn't very kinky - laff). But sometimes we trade sombreros for yarmulkes and play Jewish weddings - those Jews just really love music for special occasions. We played a wild Jewish wedding where we went back and forth between two rooms -- all the men in one, all the women in another. Then there is the ceremony under the tent, the presentation of the ketubah, breaking of the glass - MAZALTOV!!! I saw the most beautiful loaf of challah at one ceremony. Unfortunately we have yet to be invited to eat at a Jewish wedding because the Klezmer band usually takes over then.
I have never seen a Japanese wedding or an Indian wedding but would love to. I should get a job as a wedding videographer I love the traditions so much.
As it is, in 1985 I married a iconoclastic ex-Catholic woman who wanted to get married in the Cleveland Court House. We weren't going to allow family, but several members snuck in. The marriage is still working anyway.
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and congrats. My sister married a chinese guy and I THINK the costs were divided amongst the grooms parents and my parents, but I'm not sure. In any event, as toronto pointed out, it is customary for guests to give the newlyweds little red packets of "lucky money" to help them on their way. This usually isn't chump change either. I hear guests usually give $100 per attendee to the wedding, but I could be off on that. So yeah, that definitely helps cut down on the cost of the wedding. Hope that was useful info.
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