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Published: February 14th 2015
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Two weddings in Quang Ngai! What a special experience! In some ways different from US weddings but hey a wedding is a wedding isn't it? What happens first? The wedding reception/dinner is held in a catering hall -- some large restaurant that is like a ballroom or convention center with a huge hall -- the first wedding I attended held over a 1,000 people -- the hall was packed with friends and family! The 2nd was at Ocean Blue Convention Center in the middle of Quang Ngai City. What we would call the maids of honor and groomsmen line the red carpeted stair up to the entrance of the hall dressed in traditional dress to welcome the guests. There is a receiving line of the bride and groom and family as guests enter the hall. After greeting the wedding party, guests proceed to sign a guest book and drop their gifts of envelops of (money) into a gift box and then proceed into the grand hall -- tables that seat 8-10 people populate the hall and we are ushered to the closest seats -- somehow I arrived late both times so got placed towards the back. People are dressed up --
women tend to dress more formally than the men. Some of the men are only wearing dress shirts ... no jacket or tie. An MC comes to the stage which has a multimedia display of romantic photos of the couple. The MC announces the wedding (all in Vietnamese so I'm guessing) and then the maids of honor and groomsmen come in bringing cake and wine for two ceremonies. They are followed by the bride and groom. All walk to the stage to the sound of Vietnamese popular romantic music. The first ceremony is the cutting of the cake by the bride and groom. It's really a photo op -- the photographer snapping one photo after another as the couple pose as if cutting the wedding cake. Then they proceed to pose for opening the champagne or wine. Then parents and/or the relatives come up to the stage and there are sometimes speeches by the fathers or someone in the family. Then there is a toast to the parents of the bride and groom by the couple. At the end of this toast, the feast begins as the couple and their wedding party go from table to table to toast the
bride and groom with each table of guests. As the guests are all busy eating delicious courses -- one after another-- professional singers or friends and family begin to sing - karaoke -- usually romantic popular songs! Tonight courses served included fried calamari and spring rolls as the first course, a salad of bamboo shoots for the second course, an eggdrop soup for the third, com ga next, and finally seafood hot pot followed by a coconut bean paste sweet. Delicious! No wine for the guests however. There is coke or beer or water! During the last course, guests begin to leave.
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