Vietnamese weddings!

So! Got some photos of the wedding, and here is how it all happens..
Bride and groom are at their separate houses. Yes, Jonny's house is in the UK, but we used a hotel to symbolise our house! Both of them were decorated muchly, but most importantly of all is the ancestral table with two candles and flower arrangements, and then the archway of flowers over the door - you can see on our ancestral table is a dragon and a phoenix made of chillis and teeth made of garlic and everything's made out of some sort of flower or vegetable!! I'll put some close-ups on facebook when I get back as it's really rather clever :)
Early in the morning, all 6 of the best men assemble and along with the groom they all prepare themselves by getting into ao dai, the traditional dress. While this is happening, the mother of the groom prepares and inspects the red lacquer boxes that contain certain gifts in a certain order, which (if I remember correctly) goes:-
Tea
Wine
Betelnut
Fruit
Jewellery
Money
.....I think. I'll double check and then edit this post if it's wrong! But these boxes are then covered with a red cloth and handed to the best men, taking care to keep them in order. The groom's procession then goes to the bride's house in convoy, and just before the house we got out and our father went up to greet the man of the bride's house, shake his hand and then beckon the procession of the groom's parents, followed by the groom, followed by best men, and lastly remaining family/friends. The best men then stop infront of the flowery archyway, standing opposite the bridesmaids, whereupon they simultaneously pass over the boxes. These are then placed infront of the ancestral table and presented, one by one.
After that, Vy's brother in law, the representative male of her family, and Michael light the two candles on the ancestral table and bow three times, a couple of speeches are made, followed by Vy being brought out of a hiding place whereupon Vy's mother puts her hand in Jonny's. Jonny gives Vy a bunch of flowers and a kiss on the cheek, and they exchange rings. Our mother then helps Vy put on some ancestral jewellery from our family. Jonny and Vy then bow to the ancestral table and proceed to serve tea to Sue and Michael to say thank you for bringing Jonny up and for taking on the responsibility of Vy, and then they serve tea to Vy's parents to say thank you for bringing her up :)
Lunch is then served, the best men and the bridesmaids look after each other, lots of food is eaten, much beer is consumed and it's still only 11am!! The bridesmaids were so so sweet, very lovely temperement and extremely pretty and made us feel very much at home in what was a completely new experience for us. Food was excellent, as it always is, and the house resounded to cries of "Mo!..Hai!....Ba!...YO!!!" which is the Vietnamese for "Cheers, mate.."
I managed to fall off my chair with remarkable grace. Beer in hand, I moved back on my plastic stool for a bit of legroom, however one corner found itself going off a small ledge on the floor, so down that corner went, down my weight went on that one leg, that one leg folds and down my weight goes onto the floor. Beer on the other hand, is held upon high by Fred's better judgement and despite a dusty yet silky arse, there remains a full glass! That's not really a formal part of the ceremonies though..

After lunch, the best men and the bridesmaids line up outside the flowery archway and the now empty boxes are passed back, this time with the cloth folded in half. They all then proceed together to the convoy of cars whereupon the bride, the groom, his family and friends return to the groom's house, followed by Vy's brother in law, her sister, traditionally the mother doesn't come for this bit, but her uncles and aunts did. Everyone's all smiles, we have some tea and a couple more speeches are made, presents are given and then Vy's family depart, leaving her with us!!

Now NONE of what I've written has been particularly emotive, but I can tell you it was such a special special affair. Everyone was really happy, laughing, joking, drinking and Vy and Jonny both looked absolutely stunning. Their ao dai was actually tailored just for them as opposed to us best men hiring ours, and we were all just blown away by how beautiful Vy looked when she first came out of her hiding place at her house. I heard a collective gasp at our table :) And I felt so proud of my big brother!! He looked so smart and he conducted himself so magnificently, and when people asked if we were related I was so glad to tell them we were :)

After a few hours of chilling out after the traditional ceremonies, there was a big reception in a beautiful park that's pretty much just known to the locals, so it wasn't inundated with tourists. Poor Jonny and Vy had to do not one, not two or three, but FOUR sets of photographs doing Mo Hai Ba Yo with each of the 10-ish tables! They barely got a chance to eat anything, but it was much fun for the rest of us, watching them pour out a crazy dry-ice champagne fountain that was bright red, and with these big confetti cannons and some sort of olympics-style fanfare as they and their parents progressed up this red carpet for some more speeches :) The Vietnamese love this kind of thing, and we really entered into the spirit of it! There was also a very sweet toddler at our table, whose parents had taught to do the Mo Hai Ba Yo, and so was doing it with her bottle while we all clinked our glasses of beer! Awwwwww.
Anyways, I'll post this and then I'll update you on what I've actually been getting up to the last few days!
xxxxx