A Chinese wedding

I got back from Bali around midnight last night.  All in all a very good trip.  I will post an update and photos in a couple of days.

Tonight I went to another Chinese wedding, of a colleague.  Upon arrival with another western colleague we find ourselves, not surprisingly, to be the only foreigners in attendance.  All weddings i've been to here are totally different from each other as well as a western wedding.  This one being Shanghai families was a bit more upscale.  Much of the wedding part was in tuxedo's.  We arrive, take photos with the couple and then are lead to our seats.  First they check the seating chart.  It's easy for us to find our names as all the other ones are in Chinese characters and then, almost in bold you see the names "Nolan" and "Megan."  Too funny.

Throughout the evening the bride changed into 4 different dresses making a ceremonial entrance each time.  In addition she and the groom came out one time wearing jeans and white t-shirts that they had all the attendees sign upon arrival.  That was pretty cool.

The wedding itself was fast, an exchange of rings, a few speeches and that's it.  On to the games and the food.  One of the games was that they flipped through the photos that were taken upon arrival and someone yells "stop" and the person who's photo is on the screen wins.  I was winner #2!  Got myself a nice chopstick set!  Winner #3 was actually my CFO.  There were only 4 work people there and two of us won prices.  Not a bad showing.  When I went up they asked me to say a few words about the bride and groom.  That was a bit tough given I don't know him at all.  The audience was never so quiet all night until I had the mic in my hands.

From there the bride and groom go table to table drinking with every guest and saying thanks.

A nice evening and a beautiful bride and groom.  Photos to come.