The husband's brother got married recently. The husband is Indian, and of course so is his brother. The fiance however, is Chinese-Cambodian, so it was a very interesting mix of cultures.
Two weeks ago was the Chinese-Cambodian wedding in LA, and last weekend was the Hindu wedding in Detroit. The Chinese-Cambodian ceremony was really interesting. There were a lot of parallels with Indian weddings, which I found fascinating. I was still confused most of the time though -- instructions were given in their language, and people were joking around and laughing in their dialect of Chinese. I had no idea what was going on. As the husband and I liked to quip, we felt like white people at an Indian wedding.
It was the first time we felt out of place and lost at a wedding. The most exotic wedding I had been to before this was a Greek Orthodox wedding -- a long way away from Chinese-Cambodian. The Greek Orthodox wedding was mostly in English, so at least I could follow along. Anyway, it was definitely a really interesting experience and I have a lot of sympathy for all you white people who felt confused at my wedding =)
Some of the highlights from the Chinese-Cambodian ceremony were:
- The bride's and groom's multiple costume changes. However, the husband's brother was wearing what looked like a kurta top with a Nehru collar, a gold brocade bottom that looked very Indian, but black socks and clunky black shoes. The husband joked that his brother looked like he belonged in the era the British raj with that combination. Although maybe that's not actually funny.
- The bajillion plates of food, including exotic fruits (see below), tamale-type dishes, and desserts
- The exotic fruits (the rambutan is seen below, but we also had mangosteen and lychee -- by the way, i always associated lychee with the canned stuff sold in Indian stores, which I find too slimy and sweet, but fresh lychee is amazing)
- The breakfast of hot stirfried noodles (made vegetarian for us) with a fried egg and sriracha on top. The best part of the noodles was the fact that they were being stirfried as we watched, so they were amazingly fresh.
- The Cambodian donuts (or maybe they were Chinese) that tasted like beignets. I only wish there was powdered sugar to dip them in but Sriracha was as always an undisappointing substitute
Some downsides from the wedding
- As I mentioned before, the fact I was confused most of the time (but maybe that's not too different from the way I am usually)
- The chicken curry. I thought about trying some to be adventurous, but then I took the lid off the pot and looked in and found myself staring at a chicken foot. I lost my appetite for chicken after that and went back to the vegetarian dishes.
- Losing my car. The husband, his dad, our friend Vijay, and I were driving to the reception and we got involved in a 4 car accident on the free way. We didn't get hit that hard, but our car was smushed at both ends, yielding it inoperable and unsalvageable (Poor car! My parents gave it to me after I graduated from college and so there's a lot of sentimental value there). We had an interesting experience though, being the cars causing the traffic rather than the ones stuck in traffic. The upside is the road ahead of us was clear, since we were the bottleneck, so we made excellent time to the reception once everything was straightened out. The other upside is that the husband and I have to go back to carpooling to work (yay for hanging out an extra 15 minutes each way every day!)
Anyway, that's the end of the long rambling post on the wedding. I'll write more about the Indian wedding soon =)
Two weeks ago was the Chinese-Cambodian wedding in LA, and last weekend was the Hindu wedding in Detroit. The Chinese-Cambodian ceremony was really interesting. There were a lot of parallels with Indian weddings, which I found fascinating. I was still confused most of the time though -- instructions were given in their language, and people were joking around and laughing in their dialect of Chinese. I had no idea what was going on. As the husband and I liked to quip, we felt like white people at an Indian wedding.
It was the first time we felt out of place and lost at a wedding. The most exotic wedding I had been to before this was a Greek Orthodox wedding -- a long way away from Chinese-Cambodian. The Greek Orthodox wedding was mostly in English, so at least I could follow along. Anyway, it was definitely a really interesting experience and I have a lot of sympathy for all you white people who felt confused at my wedding =)
Some of the highlights from the Chinese-Cambodian ceremony were:
- The bride's and groom's multiple costume changes. However, the husband's brother was wearing what looked like a kurta top with a Nehru collar, a gold brocade bottom that looked very Indian, but black socks and clunky black shoes. The husband joked that his brother looked like he belonged in the era the British raj with that combination. Although maybe that's not actually funny.
- The bajillion plates of food, including exotic fruits (see below), tamale-type dishes, and desserts
- The Cambodian donuts (or maybe they were Chinese) that tasted like beignets. I only wish there was powdered sugar to dip them in but Sriracha was as always an undisappointing substitute
Some downsides from the wedding
- As I mentioned before, the fact I was confused most of the time (but maybe that's not too different from the way I am usually)
- The chicken curry. I thought about trying some to be adventurous, but then I took the lid off the pot and looked in and found myself staring at a chicken foot. I lost my appetite for chicken after that and went back to the vegetarian dishes.
- Losing my car. The husband, his dad, our friend Vijay, and I were driving to the reception and we got involved in a 4 car accident on the free way. We didn't get hit that hard, but our car was smushed at both ends, yielding it inoperable and unsalvageable (Poor car! My parents gave it to me after I graduated from college and so there's a lot of sentimental value there). We had an interesting experience though, being the cars causing the traffic rather than the ones stuck in traffic. The upside is the road ahead of us was clear, since we were the bottleneck, so we made excellent time to the reception once everything was straightened out. The other upside is that the husband and I have to go back to carpooling to work (yay for hanging out an extra 15 minutes each way every day!)
Anyway, that's the end of the long rambling post on the wedding. I'll write more about the Indian wedding soon =)
