A rare get-together

A wedding is one of those rare occassions where all the family from near and distant places come together at the same time and venue.

And since it is a joyous occassion, the mood is inevitably positive, everyone dressed in their best outfit..or supposedly their best. Yesterday's wedding dinner was held by a Hong Kong couple with Malaysian ancestral roots from the bride's side, hence the function here in KL. Jessica's siblings and parents attended, save for my wife who was struck by a bout of flu, poor her...so Laetitia and me took the honours in representing our 'family'.

So off I trotted with Laetitia to this venue, luckily there was a drawn plan on the invitation card as the wedding took place on the other side of town. I called to my dad-in-law to check whether they had arrived already but no such luck, we were the first to arrive and had to make do with finding our own way. Sure no problems, should be a piece of cake.

When I arrived there was a huge crowd in front of the 'restaurant'......so ofcourse this dude thinks this is the place to be, name of venue : check......bridal car : check, 'beautiful people" : check. So I approached the 'reception' table and ofcourse it is all in Chinese, and those peeps started talking to me in Mandarin. As I assumed this was the right place, I dutifully signed in the guestbook.....but ohooh, then came some questions as these peeps didn't recognize me and I for sure didn't know them either. Then it suddenly dawned upon one of the ushers that I'm not a guest at this wedding but should go to the upper floor where there was another wedding going on. Aaaargghhh, we scurried away as fast as possible conveying our apologies and made our way to the 3rd floor....where yes, there was another wedding. So same routine, lining up for the reception desk and bewildered looks from both sides. LOL......this time I was smart enough not to sign in immediately and asked some questions first, showing them the invitation card. And they pointed out that the wedding I needed to attend should be one floor down, 2nd floor. Hahahahahaaa.....what a laugh.

Finally found the correct venue, sign in, pass on the angpow and take a seat.....what a hilarious situation.

What still puzzles me actually here in Malaysia, that for functions a substantial percentage of the guests just show up in their everyday's clothes as opposed to the Western world and other 'developed' societies in Asia people (gents wear ties, ladies wear night dress). Is it an affront? I assume it is still ingrained in their 'small hometown' mind that one does not engage into these frivolous sideshows like dressing up and just be practical and show up in their normal clothes and partake in the festivities at hand.

Other than that, a wedding here is like a wedding everywhere on this planet. It starts slowly, with people getting (re)acquainted with eachother, preferring a seating on a table with familiar faces and stuffing themselves full with the offered banquet. And ofcourse, as the evening progresses, the alcohol induced minds loosen up the tongues and the party really starts rolling.....

Alas the night was still young when we left, we were going back to look after poor Jessica and we left the wedding event with our stomachs full and a big smile on our faces. Laetitia and me were still in party mood during the ride back home and we sang our hearts out to the tune of some Chinese pop songs :)

Oh yeah, another thing......back in the olden days, there were always one or more appointed, hired photographers who would record the obligatory pictures for memories sake, but nowadays with the advent of cheap digital cameras, there is practically no more need for those professionals. Tons of guests scurrying around to take pictures from all possible angles.....now I do wonder whether anyone is going to collect all these pics and make them available to the newly wed (I've saved mine on a thumbdrive and will pass it to them).

'Cos after all, it is their special night.