Kevin Chung's Wedding 8 Nov 2008

This Post is dedicated to Kevin, my cousin.

Backtracking a little in time, I'm in China and spent a day with my grandmother and relatives before setting off t Foshan the next day to visit a friend, and then headed off to Shunde in the evening, where my cousin Kevin lives.

I've arrived near midnight, on public transport. And am totally freaked out by the rush of middle-age men coming up to me. Be it asking if I'd like to take a taxi, begging for money or whatever. Mainland China can really be scary at times especially in the nights. Finally I've spotted Kevin and he escorted the helpless me into his car withhis friend (sorry i couldn't remember his name).

We headed for a pretty exotic supper. Frogleg Porridges, grilled pigs intestines and Eel Sashimi. Warning! Gross looking pictures ahead

The Eel sashimi in Ice, and raw frog legs, to be cooked in the porridge

Me with the Eels

The frogleg porridges and pigs intestines grilled with black bean sauce

Frankly speaking, I do have a liking for exotic food. If I am to join fear factor, I'm positive I can get good grades on the eating round. Haha! Anyway, after supper we headed back to Kevin's apartment to catch the right timing (时辰）for him to pay respects to his ancestors.

We had Tang Yuan after that for supper to mark good luck :)

The reason why I had to be there a day before, was that according to the tradition and customs in Shunde, a male buddy has to sleep with the groom in the new bed meant fo the married couple one night before the wedding, it was said that it gives good luck. And I, being the most free man in town, had to take the job. Heres the bedroom in different angle. Beautiful.

The next day, the wedding day, Kevin and I woke up early to prepare the Flowers, decorations for all the transports and doing various admin works. Worked all morning while relatives from all over the city slowly gathered at Kevin's place.

At noon time, We, the groom's party, are all set and heads down to the lunching location, a restaurant owned by Kevin's family (i think?) And there I met my family members including my ever-crazy-photo-taking sister and parents. They travelled straight to Shunde from Hongkong early morning by Ship

My sister, and my father.

Then, my sister took over the camera immediately and start snapping away with our little baby neice, 1 year old. I know it is totally unrelated but i, too, thinks she's too cute to miss.

Dinners over and here we are in preparation for the time to set off fetching the bride! We had all the vehicles fall in on the streets, and stocking up all the gifts for the bride's family into the groom's vehicle.

The groom is soo busy looking and the crazy siblings are simply cam-whoring away?

Heres the million dollar question. WHY ARE THERE GOOSES AND CHCKEN LYING AROUND AT THE BOOT OF THE CAR???  After finding out from the older generations, I'm briefed that there is a chinese saying: 娇女换娇鹅. Means a pretty goose for a pretty daughter. In the older days, owning a goose is a luxury and therefore exchanging a goose for daughter isn't rare. It remains as a form of significancy today in Shunde. Since the Bride's family is 'giving away' their precious daughter to the groom's family, they are compensated with a goose. As for the chicken and the fruits, I guess it's there for courtesy sake. Below are some pictures taken along the streets outside Kevin's apartment.

We've left at 1pm to fetch the bride and must be back with the bride at 3pm. (one chinese hour 一个时辰). It is time to party, because the groom's party will be faced with obstacles from now on. We've prepared spray cans with us in order to fight the war. As we must protect the groom and best man, I was appointed as the head of negotiator, 3rd in command in the groom's party.

The moment we've arrived outside the bride's apartment, we were strucked with surprised bombardments of spray cans and bananas!

The area outside the bride's apartment immediately transformed into a warzone with spraying all over. We retaliate by spraying into their hideout:

And spraying funny wordings like 拆 (to be removed) and 欠钱换钱 (own money return money) onto their wall. Its for fun of course:

There were casualties...

...who seems to be having lots of fun with the 'bullets'

Eventually, i had to do my job, together with the best man, to start negotiating terms to open up the door for us.

The groom had to stand really far away in order to protect him from the crossfire

We came to terms! Invasion!!

Horrible messes we created

Somehow, somewhere, there were more sprayings happening inside the house! My sister did a great job protecting Kevin from getting shot, the men from our party fought back but they had good shelter known as the Newspaper!

Finally! We had arrived the bride's room! As the Fashion consultant for Kevin (I really had lots of role to play in his wedding!), i had to ensure he's at his best before he sees the bride.

Miracle picture taken by my sister! she snapped the moment the door was opened! great shot Jessica!

And in we go, followed by the Ring exchanging ceremony, and kissing of the bride, Wing.

NO! NOT JUST THE CHEEKS!

Now thats better. There was another mini obstacle for Kevin thanks to the sisters, to find the bride's heels! He easily found it on the top of the shelves and helped Wing with it.

We missed the tea ceremony, somehow. But it took place beautifully with Kevin and Wing offering tea to Wing's parents and relatives. After that, we set off back to Kevin's place.

My sister taking on the job of holding the bride's gown! she said, I wanna wear this!!

Back at Kevin's place, they had a closed door ceremony for paying of respects to ancestors the tea ceremony for Kevin's parents. Here are some pictures taken when they arrived.

Tired me. I took a short nap afterwards, while my sister went cam-whoring again with our cousin, who look scarily like my sister. And I have no idea why they took their legs.

At night at the Wedding Banquet, there's nothing much to blog about anymore. Everybody just sat back, relax, and dig in. Every now and then, the couple along with both parents would come to your table and drink up. I find this part really boring. Plus the hired photographer-cum videographer had been blocking my sister's view to snap any photos since we're seating right in front. And the worst thing that happened, my performance with my sister didn't take place. I still had not had any performance with her in our lives. Hope we can have other chances. She's a guitarist by the way. Hehe. I'll end this entry with more pictures. Sorry for the super long-winded blog entry!

Dad, Kevin, Kevin's dad and sister.   The Emcee of the night

Me with Big uncle, My father's elder brother. And my sister trying to pose as Koda Kumi with my Specs

Dad helping himself with the redwine, And the only picture i took with wing, who look super tired already, and the already half-drunk uncle

Lastly, Picture of Kevin, Wing, Dad and Mum (first time she's appearing on AnD. She doesn't like taking pictures)