our taiwanese wedding . . . a quick synopsis

Our Taiwanese Wedding ceremony and banquet was on Saturday! Today is Monday . . . I am still tired beyond all get out.

Our
rehearsal ran late, and the bridesmaids all stayed in my home for the
night . . . so we didn't get to bed till 1 or 2. Then we were back up
at 5 for make up and getting dressed.

Groom and groomsman arrived to pick us up at 8:20 (Taiwanese tradition), and it was RAINING!! :)

Before
the ceremony started we stood at the door and greeted our guests for
about 30 minutes or so. We had lots of people call or text to say they
weren't coming because of the rain. However, still so many of our friends and loved ones braved the rain to come celebrate with us.  We were and are SO grateful!!

The
church ceremony was 2 hours long (I've been told that's about average for a Taiwanese church wedding).  In addition to the vows, and charge, and unity ceremonies, it included seven songs that were song and two that were played by instruments (trumpet and flute), in addition to the bridal procession and recession.  So, we had a mini-concert in the middle of our wedding.  I was worried about it being too much and too long, but having our close friends and church family bless us with song was GREAT and made me cry. 

Oh yeah . . . .and one of those songs was a solo from my hubby to me!!!  It was SUCH a BEAUTIFUL SONG . . . and he sang it SO beautifully (if I do say so myself).   Every time he practiced it, I cried, but at the actual wedding I made it through his song without crying.

After the ceremony, we took pictures with different guests for about 45 minutes (mostly students that wouldn't be attending the banquet). Then we
took off to the banquet--got there at 12:15 and most all of the guests
were already there. All the banquet activity started at about 12:30ish.

Then
for the next three hours there was loud karaoke and a huge feast. We
sang a song together in Mandarin (the only love song I know in Chinese). We toasted each table one by one.  That's 27 tables and about 27,000 thank yous.  

One
traditional thing that I did not do was change dresses three (or more) times. They
do this to "show off the beauty of the bride." They rent the dresses
from a wedding photo store, but since I had purchased my dress from
America, I didn't need to rent a wedding dress. So we choose to keep
things a bit more simple, and I just wore my own wedding dress the
entire banquet, which also means I actually got to eat and enjoy all
the karaoke. :)

After all the feasting and toasting and singing,
we stood by the door and said goodbye to our guests passing out candy
from special baskets--one was the basket his mom used at her wedding
and the other one was made by his grandfather many years ago.

We
must have literally taken over a thousand photos. But, so far we only have a few
that our friends have posted online. I'll share more as we have them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now . . . .

All in all it was a GREAT day. . . . a long, exhausting day . . . but VERY wonderful too. :) 

(I "stole" some of these photos from Sandy, who blogs here.  Sorry and thanks, Sandy!!)