Rosie and Tony's wedding!

Friends with Rosie on her wedding day!

Rosie and Tony got married this past Saturday, May 2. It was a beautiful, wonderful day, and we all had a great time.

I met Lily, another resident friend, at the main entrance to the hospital. She and I walked to the nearest Metro stop and then caught up with two other friends. We took the Metro as far out as we were able, to the outskirts of Chengdu. Then we took a taxi to the hotel where the wedding was being held. I use a lot of mass transit here in the city!

On the Metro with Lily and Jenny (and a friend of Jenny's).

Jenny and Lily with cards from friends. It is customary to purchase a red envelope and put cash inside for the couple (as a gift). Of course, you have to give an even number of bills--giving an odd number of bills is taboo.

Rosie and Tony were there to greet us. Rosie looked phenomenal! And they both appeared incredibly happy. They were happy to see us :)  I noticed that the Best Man was standing off to the side with a beautiful platter of...cigarettes. Yet another difference from the U.S. (where smoking indoors is banned in most locations. I was very spoiled in Iowa!). It seems that everyone here in China smokes... I digress.

Rosie and Tony with their Best Man, who was in charge of providing guests with cigarettes.

We then headed up to the fourth floor to mingle with other guests and drink hot tea. We found a dinner table near the stage on which they were to be married. The wedding ceremony was to take place during dinner, almost like a dinner theater (at least that is my analogy). The ceremony started at noon, and it was pretty short and sweet. I, of course, couldn't understand it, but during the exchange of rings, both Rosie and Tony both had tears in their eyes.

Rosie with her father. Tony had to get down on one knee and present her with her bouquet.

Exchanging vows. The lady in the fancy blue dress serves as a "hostess" (hired by them) and she talks them through the ceremony. She also sang a few songs at the end!

At the end of the ceremony, the couple had their parents come up on the stage and take a seat. The couple then presented each parent with a cup of tea, which they drank.

Maid of honor holding the platter of tea cups, while Tony presents a tea cup to his new father-in-law (drinking the tea on the left).

The lunch feast!
 

Immediately after the ceremony, the bride throws her bouquet (as in the U.S.). The groom throws these small red envelopes...

And inside is money! (This is 1 yuan, or about $ 0.15). Some envelopes were filled with much greater amounts :)

Afterwards, Rosie switched into a cute red dress and we all had fun and enjoyed our lunch. I was planning to leave after lunch with my other friends, but Rosie came over and told me she wanted me to stay "very late". I wasn't sure what this meant...



Liz and Rosie

We all sat down and had tea and talked. We watched others play poker and Mahjong, which is a very common post-wedding practice. The other guests just sat around and talked and drank tea. This all went on for several hours. The friends that I accompanied the wedding decided to leave, but Rosie wanted met to stay...



Guests playing Mahjong after the wedding.

Tony (far left) playing poker with his buddies.

Finally at about 6pm, they served us a delicious dinner. I have never seen so much food!  After dinner, Rosie asked me to go to the karaoke bar with the other wedding guests and her high school and college friends.

The dinner spread. It was delicious!



Hitching a ride to the karaoke bar.
 

Post-wedding karaoke fun!

The Chinese sure love their karaoke!

I ended up staying out until about 10:30, until some of her other friends were going to catch the Metro back into the center of Chengdu. I went with them (but the karaoke was still going on in full force). I was back to the hotel by 11:30 pm and was so tired! It was quite a day.