Here is the lovely couple. Photo shamelessly borrowed from their wedding website.
I had the best time yesterday coordinating a wedding. The bride was a lovely Chinese-American woman. The groom was Cuban-American. They had a pretty simple church ceremony, but at the reception, their families’ heritages were on full display.
The reception had most of the usual traditions you would expect at a wedding. The bride and groom had their first dance together; the bride tossed her bouquet; and the groom tossed the garter. But after the first dance, the bride changed from her white wedding gown into a gorgeous red dress. (Red is a traditional lucky color in Chinese culture. Many Chinese brides wear red.) She also put on a heavily embroidered Chinese jacket called a kwa and some special jewelry. Then she and her new husband performed a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, which involved them serving tea to their parents and grandparents and receiving gifts from them. Her aunts made the special tea and her uncles read a description so everyone felt involved in the ceremony.
After the tea ceremony, the groom’s family’s culture came to the forefront. The groom’s mother is old friends with the leader of a hot Cuban salsa band. The band played a late-evening set that got the crowd out onto the dance floor to dance salsa, cha-cha, and cumbia. Everyone felt like celebrating–and there are some fine salsa dancers among the groom’s family and friends.
Finally, at the end of the evening, the groom had a surprise for everyone. He’s a big fan of Michael Jackson, and he came out dressed in a full MJ outfit to dance to “Billie Jean.” Let me tell you, this guy had all the moves. The night ended on a high note.
And where was your humble wedding coordinator during all this? I was in two places at once, most of the night. I was lining up the wedding party for their introductions; making sure the best man and matron of honor were in place to make their well-spoken toasts; getting a dad and a mom ready to dance with the bride and groom; moving chairs and tables for the tea ceremony; making sure the bride had changed in time for the tea ceremony and had remembered to put on her garter; telling the band leader when to start playing, and when to stop; keeping the bride from finding out that her new husband was going to do a surprise dance for her; informing the DJ, photographer, and videographer about the next event; working with the banquet hall staff; and making sure everyone was happy. It was a lot of work, but for such nice people, it was a pleasure.
I’m really looking forward to seeing the photos from this very special wedding. I’ll post them as soon as I get them so you can see for yourself how beautiful it was.
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