A three day wedding

All the trips, the fun and the laughter was all made possible by the very special event which fell right in the middle of the 2 week trip - the wedding of Charlene Wang and Tong Chen. Charlene is one of my chicas from the Dhaka days, and my regular readers will recognise her from earlier posts :-) After Bangladesh Charlene moved to Beijing and while there she met a very special man called Tony Chen and on May 21st they exchanged their vows in a wonderful setting. Well the wedding was in fact 3 days involving a little Bangladeshi culture and a traditional Chinese banquet!
Linda apa brought 5 saris from Delhi and she along with Sarah, Anna, HC and Melanie prepared and performed a hit Bollywood dance at the Halud evening. The evening was a lovely opportunity to meet all of Charlene's family and friends from all over the world. The Indian restaurant also had phujka(amazing Bangladeshi snack) so I was a very happy girl. The evening also came with a lady from india who painted mendi/henna onto lots of hands.


The bride and groom in their halud outfits


The Bollywood ladies

Saturday was the big day and there was lots of running and prep after the morning spent in the Antiques market (previous post). We had been warned by Charlene that come what may the ceremony was starting at 4 and so no late arrivals would be acceptable so we got there at 3 :-) The setting was amazing in a restaurant beside a lake with a huge garden - it could not have been more perfect. The sun was glorious and I still smile at the image of the ladies in their dresses and the men in their suits all sporting sunglasses, maybe I am used to Irish wedding where wedding attire and sunglasses seem strange together!


Cool chica


Bouquet

My favourite part of the decorations was the broccoli centre to the bouquets which just added a little je n'est ce quoi :-)
A sneak preview of the bride brought a tear to the eye as she looked so beautiful in her white dress and wonderful jade necklace - we get the theme of the wedding as green right?! Then after but a short wait Charlene walked down the aisle of the garden arrangement led by her father on one side and her mother on the other, it was a heart warming moment. The ceremony involved a beautiful poem by Tony's 'New Zealand mum', a wonderful arrangement of poems by various members of the wedding party and a lovely song sung by a friend of Charlene's from the US.


Vows


The cake - yummy!

The ceremony was swiftly followed by the most amazing array of finger food - note to self if I ever get married make sure there is finger food right after ceremony it makes guests so happy! We also enjoyed the delicious cocktail made by Charlene's high school friend Paul who not works in the drinks industry - it was a mixture of vodka, lime and ginger and I can't sing its praises enough. The speeches as we tucked into a mouth watering dinner, were moving and humourous as the story of how Tony and Charlene met was shared, and the realization that marriage brings change into so many different people's lives.
The dancing began, delicious cake was consumed, as was various mixtures of drinks and as the night wore on the bride showed us the magic of her wedding dress as it divided into two allowing for proper dancing to commence. I danced and danced even entering into a 'not to leave the dance floor' agreement with 3 others until the night was done - we succeeded!


Dancing

The after party moved onto Bed Bar, a novel idea of using the old opium beds as seats in the bar - far too relaxing for my energy that night! But the night was young and after waving the bride and groom off we proceeded to move the after after party to a KTV location. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this really funky invention you are in for a treat - you and a group of friends get a room with a tv and lots and lots of song options and a few microphones. Way too much fun available!!! It was bright and 5am as I crawled into bed.....
Only to get up 3 hours later to head to the third and final part of the wedding that involved the traditional Muslim Chinese banquet. The word for the day was most definitely FOOD and lots of it - by the end of the event there were 10 levels of food piled up on the table in front of me and included all kinds of yummy dishes from fish to tofu to red bean balls. I politely sipped the banquet wine but was unable to consume it all! We watched as Charlene and Tony presented their respective parents with tea an important part of the wedding ceremony, this was followed by a display of traditional dancing where the spinning made me dizzy and finally Derek the best man gave a speech in Mandarin which everyone seemed to appreciate.


Banquet outfits

The three days had been a fabulous mixture of cultures, foods and people, but we expected nothing less from Charlene and her new husband Tony.