Wedding bliss

It was the strangest wedding ever.

She is Japanese. He is Korean. Neither of their parents speak English. Wollongong, where they first met, seemed the most suitable place to hold the wedding. Guess Australia is a neutral ground for both sides. The MC hired for the day wasn't quite informed of our violin-piano duet and a couple of other program items. He had never met the bride nor the groom either. I wonder how he was hired in the first place. Yellow pages? What if he wasn't good looking for an MC? Thankfully he had that overly-caffeinated type behaviour which certainly lifted the mood. The solemniser is another story by itself. He seemed to be constantly making a mockery of the Asian guests, reminding them time and time again that he would be speaking at a s-l-o-w-e-r tempo so that they can understand the words he was about to speak.

There were only eighty guests, including myself - a total stranger, selfishly filling up a spot on the table. I had thought a light lunch would be served. Instead, I had the heaviest wedding lunch in my entire life - an entre of overcooked prawns on skewers, main dish of chicken breast topped with cream sauce, finished with chocolate mousse dessert decorated with strawberries. I shouldn't be complaining, really.

Above all, the newly-weds were extremely happy. No stress, no rush, unlike typical Chinese weddings where the whole world is invited otherwise one of your amazingly distant relative would be offended, so help you god. The bride's dress was simple, yet elegant. Three change of clothes? No nonsense like that. The master of ceremony even had a little competition going on in view of the lack of kissing by the newly-weds, largely due to the lack of glass tapping. First up, an Australian couple showed them how it was done. Next, an Indon-Korean couple lifted the bar that the newly-weds had to surpass. In the end, the groom tipped his bride close to the ground, made the heavily-applauded kiss, and dropped her gently to the ground. Awwww.

I should also mention that I rudely turned away a guy who asked me for a dance. My immediate response was a firm no and I said nothing further. Split seconds later, I realised what I had done. Seriously, I should have at least said:

"No, but thanks for asking." OR
"No, but I really suck at dancing." OR
"No thanks. I'm right."

OR anything along those lines for that matter! He must now think of the most horrible things of me. Sigh, bygones are indeed bygones.

Anyway, in essence, I made music, ate a sumptous meal, got paid when I wasn't expecting to be paid, and received a gift of Sakura-shaped Japanese crackers for contributing to the ambience. I now have another wedding next month to plan for - music please!