My college friend Julian had her wedding dinner on April 3rd and my boyfriend and I were invited to join the dinner. It was held in a Taiwanese seafood restaurant. Because Taiwan is an island, that's why the quality of seafood here is good and our fellows like to eat a lot of it. In Taiwan, a couple will have at least 2 wedding parties, one is for the engagement, the other one is for marriage, but in Southern Taiwan, some will have another dinner, called "歸寧" (归宁, Gui Ning), means the married daughter would go back to paternal home, treat and thank the whole family and relatives who in return support the entire wedding ceremony. The one we attended was Julian's engagement wedding dinner.
The restaurant is a brand-new one, all the equipments were new and the banquet hall was also new and beautiful. On every table there were placards which showed the names of guest groups and the menu of that day's dinner. Before we entered in the main hall, we had to sign our names at the reception, which was located at the entrance of the hall. While signing our name, we gave our money gift to the reception personnel. And because it was an engagement dinner, we got a lovely bride cookie box in return.
Although on the invitation card said the dinner would start at 12:00 PM, but our fellows are known not to arrive on time, especially when it comes to this kind of wedding dinners. I have no clue why this became a habit. We were waiting till 12:40PM and while the hall was still filling up with guests, the wedding dinner had started.
A moderator opened the wedding dinner and there were many cute kids entering the banquet hall. The boys wore black suits and the girls wore white dresses and all of them held a small basket and threw rose petals in the air which were slowly falling on the red carpet. The cute kids were followed by the bridesmaid and groomsman and then finally newlyweds entered. When my friend, now the bride Julian, came in, I almost couldn't move my eyes, she looked so beautiful and stunning, I've never seen her like this, I felt so excited. And the light of the restaurant was so great, I could easily take good pictures of them. After the newlyweds took their place, the wedding dinner started formally. Because Julian majored in Chinese Literature, she invited a Chinese zither group to perform at the dinner, which was so smooth and temperate and all the dishes were also nice.
Some 30 min later, Julian changed another bridal gown and entered the main hall with her husband and everyone applauded them. The second gown was stunning, too, and made her look like a real princess. After she reached the center stage, I heard the moderator calling my name among others. The boyfie and I were a bit confused. Then I realized that Julian would give her wedding bouquet to one of her single friends. She didn't throw it, but used several ribbons that were tied to the bouquet, and every girl chose one of them and pulled at the same time. Only one would get it. Well, it wasn't me this time (actually I got one before), but I still got some candies from the lovely bride.
Another 30 min later, Julian and her husband entered the main hall again with new attire. Julian wore another sexy gown and she really looked so beautiful and sexy. Then the newlyweds and their parents went around visiting every table and toasting every guest, who attended the dinneer.
This is my boyfie's first time to join a real wedding dinner and he had a great time. And I was so happy for Julian, because she finally found her true love of her life!
13 comments:
Good job, Lily. You wrote a great post. This was really a great experience and I loved the cookies, hehe. Shouldn't have eaten so many, though. :)
Fabulous. Your dress looks very nice, sis. :) The wedding dinner seems like got a bit different compare to here. Thanks for sharing.
Oh, how lovely! Thank you for sharing this story about your friend's engagement dinner. Everyone looked very pretty, and the bride was stunning. Her dresses were amazing! It must be very expensive to have several dinners, and dresses.
And I love the new layout of your blog, it's so beautiful!
@MKL,
Thanks a lot, I try my best to introduce our wedding dinner to the readers, and you also hade the first experience to eat the chicken ball. :-P
@Stefanie,
Hey, sis, thanks for the lovely comment. Maybe next time you can introduce your wedding dinner to us, I hope I can know the difference, must be very interesting.
@さらまり,
Thanks for commenting, feel so happy. I have no clues that the wedding dinner was expensive or not, but the guests would contribute our cash gift to the newlywed, maybe it helps. :-D
cool... similar to malaysia but we didnt get the cookies though, the decor looks great.
the bride looks so beautiful! and the celebrations look so fun, so different from here, where we have traditional indian wedding which goes on for 4-5 days and is so crazy haha
@Lily,
You don't get cookies from the bride? I see, here is very common to get the cookies, even the bride would spend lots of time choosing the cookies.
@Manju,
Maybe you can also introduce your Indian wedding, must be interesting, too. It's a bit hard for me to imagine that the wedding can last for 4-5 days. :-P
Brides really look very special on their big day! The bridal train looks really long and heavy.
Got the link from Shingo T, oh guess there is one thing in common comes to timing for wedding functions. Thought Malaysian are good at 'rubber' time so Taiwanese are just the same haha. tQ.
@Keats The Sunshine Girl,
Yes, of course brides need to look special and brilliant on their big day, maybe it's only 1 day in their life time. Thanks for commenting.
@Bananazஇ,
Thanks for coming and commenting here, I feel grateful.
Haha, I think maybe Asians are all good at "rubber" time. :-P
Weddings and engagements are such happy occassions, it is a joy to witness. Many people say that the bride is most beautiful on her wedding day. I see so many hearts in the decorations. This is so sweet and romantic. Did the bride and groom kissed each other on stage?
@Autumn Belle @ KDP,
Of couse they had to kiss each other on the stage publicly, hehe, people would ask them to do that!! I was a bit surprised that the groom looked shy but gave the bride so many hot kisses! I think he must be very flushed.XD
That looks like a very nice meal. I don't see crustaceans (apart from prawns) at a wedding dinner very often.
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