A wedding invitation in Nanning

My friend Jane in Nanning had invited me to this wedding, it was a marriage between a Chinese lady and an man from the US.I think I was asked so as he had some other foreigner there to keep him company ! So I skipped a few places I planned to visit and rushed south to Nanning as I thought it would be nice to see a (half) Chinese wedding. Although in a number of ways things are done similarly to what I see in Europe, there were plenty of little differences that made it interesting.

娟-Juan & Jeff were already married in the US a year ago and this was the Chinese version, so not a full wedding ceremony, but it was a full day of activites. It started with going around visiting the houses of family where small ceremonies, exchange of gifts, eating of noodles, burning of incense sticks and throwing of confetti etc were all part of the festivities, unfortunately the loud fire crackers that I heard and saw often in Xinjiang wedding ceremonies were not allowed here thanks to the Nanning municipal governers banning such things in their city... (boooo, boring people). The houses visited were all covered in pink heart-shaped ballons and Chinese good luck symbols, gifts were given in red envelopes (red is a lucky colour in China) and surprisingly I even received some of these too from the family members we visited.

After the visiting was over, photos were taken in one of Nanning's green parks and then back to their flat to rest and snack for a while. Here, I was amused by Lin Huang Ming, a young girl whose mother left her at the flat for a while, she spent most of the time blowing up ballons ad letting the air out again, chasing them round the room, or getting me to tie them for her and then drawing smiley faces on them, she was ever so funny to watch. At one point she wrote her name for me (in Chinese which I of course could not read). Later, when I was with her and Jane in a car, Jane asked her her name, she looked round at us and pointing at me said, 'he knows', which was embarassing as of course I didn't know having not been able to read it earlier. I know it now and won't forget !



Left & Centre: Some wedding photos
Right: The lovely 娟-Juan (English name Jane) who invited me.

The evening dinner and ceremonies took place in one of Nanning's hotels. The couple and best-man/bridesmaid greet all guests at the hotel entrance with plates full of chocolates, biscuits, nuts, seeds and cigarettes which guests help themsleves to. When everyone has arrived the married couple enter the dining hall to another shower of poppers and confetti, make some brief speeches, pour some drinks, cut some cake then go round every table toasting everyone while all the guests get to eat. There was plenty to eat so I ate as much as possible, met many new people, was introduced to lots of Jane's friends and had an interesting evening.