Aw...more double happiness! We went to another wedding last week, and this one was uniquely special because it was a Chinese wedding here in Denmark. Sai, principal oboe in Don's orchestra, married his longtime girlfriend, Yao (a classical pianist), and we were lucky enough to be invited. Although they were actually married in China last year, they wanted to share their wedding celebration with their friends and colleagues here in Europe. So, along with their families travelling all the way from China (that is one ridiculous travel intinerary, believe me), they had music conservatory friends coming from Germany and Austria, too. It was quite the international bunch. The wedding ceremony (including really touching speeches from both fathers, one of whom talked about reading and loving Hans Christian Andersen stories as a child in China, and how thrilled he was to be here in the land of Andersen himself) was done in Chinese, with Sai's sister-in-law interpreting to everyone in perfect English. The ceremony was held in an elegant historical hotel, after which we had a spectacular lunch in another room. SO GORGEOUS. The food was unbelieveable, and it kept right on coming. (They really should have noted "elastic waistbands strongly encouraged" on the invitation.) Danes have several very interesting and funny wedding traditions, including cutting the toes off of the groom's socks and cutting his tie in half, and they also do the throwing of the bouquet and the clinking of water glasses to make the bride and groom kiss. My absolute favorite is when the groom leaves the room at any time, all (and I mean ALL) of the men immediately jump up and run over to the bride and line up to kiss her, and vice versa for when the bride steps outside. It's quite hilarious to witness, and it was especially funny to see Sai and Yao's parents reacting to the rowdiness of it all. Sai caught on pretty quickly and was gracious enough to start announcing that Yao was gone. Cheeky boy!
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