We did have a fantastic weekend and hope you all did as well. Friday we were invited to the wedding of our new friends, Murray and Catharine, and what an event it was! Murray is from South Africa and Catharine is from Australia but they have come via London. Yes, very worldly but this kind of thing is not all that uncommon here.
The wedding was black tie...Oooooh! We didn't know exactly what to expect since this was our first black tie wedding and the first wedding we've been to for someone outside of the U.S. We have since learned that black tie is actually pretty common in London. I guess this really isn't a surprise when you really think about their culture, but apparently many companies in London even have black tie Christmas parties so just about every guy has their own tux. Who would have thought?
It's funny how there are so many things you really take for granted until you have to go through the motions in a new place. Yes, I know that I should be fully aware of this after the last 5 months but I guess some things still surprise me. For example, what do you buy as a wedding gift? They're our age and have done well in their careers so money seems very inappropriate but what's the right thing to buy then? I still don't know if they're registered anywhere but we assumed not since about 55 of their 70 guests flew in from other countries. We settled on a really nice photo album from Papyrus (which if you think is an expensive store in the States, you're in for a shock in Hong Kong - total rip off) that I'm going to put some pictures and memorabilia from their wedding in.
Next question: do you bring the gift with you? Seems like an easy question until you think about the fact that 1. we don't have a car to leave the present in during church and 2. from church, the entire wedding reception was being transported on the Peak Tram up to the reception on top of the Peak. Answer: we brought the card with a note saying that we would bring their gift by when they returned from their honeymoon. However, I later learned that the wedding planner was collecting gifts from people as their walked in to the church. Oh, and their was no card box or gift table at the wedding (see previous sentence) so I eventually handed the card over to their really fantastic wedding planner.
The evening was a bit of a fairy tale. For those who have been up the Peak Tram (or who will be when you come to visit), you can only imagine how cool it was to have the whole wedding reception, dressed in black tie attire, take over an entire tram and ride up to the Peak together, only to be whisked away like a tour group to the reception where the cocktails were outside with really yummy hors d'oeuvres, mojitos, lychee martinis, cosmos and my new favorite, champagne.
They had the entire Pearl on the Peak restaurant rented out for a 5-course dinner with each course having its own wine. The view of Hong Kong was incredible, as it always is from the Peak, but all of these amazing things were second to the people that were there. It was so cool for us to be a part of a traditional wedding from another culture. Their guests had traveled from 4 different continents to be a part of the wedding and we couldn't believe how friendly everyone was. We were a little hesitant before the wedding because we only knew a few people besides the bride and groom but by the end of the night we had several people planning our visit to Sydney and other parts of Australia.
Now for the speeches. Between Chris and I, we're pretty sure that we've been to probably about 50+ weddings in our adult lives and these speeches and toasts were some of the best we've ever heard. That's not meant to be disrespectful to anyone, especially because we were incredibly moved by all of the speeches at our own wedding, but I think the whole atmosphere really added to them on Friday night.
For starters, the evening had an MC. Yes, really, but I suppose that's necessary when dinner is 3 or 4 hours. Nope, not making that up either. Catharine's brother, Daniel, was the MC and he did such a great job. He is a political correspondent in Sydney and on the national news every night in Australia so I suppose he has a knack for public speaking.
Second, the guys in the wedding party were dressed in morning suits (sans the top hats). In other words, tailed tuxedo jackets, gray striped trousers (this is a British things after all) and a fancy vest & tie. This kind of thing would NEVER fly in the U.S. I'm laughing just sitting here thinking about Chris, or any other guys I know, dressed like that and pretty sure that they would get beaten up by someone if they were ever dressed in a morning suit but in this atmosphere, it really just worked.
Third, there were real, proper toasts to the bride and groom. What do I mean by proper? Well, see pages 365 and 366 of "Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette" by Peggy Post (I hope I've cited this correctly!). You're laughing at me right now, I know it, but my dad and step-mom gave this to me when I got engaged and it has come in quite handy. For those not wanting to make a trip to the library or just can't bear to buy one more thing on Amazon.com this season, I'll give you a synopsis.
- Telegrams and messages sent from guests unable to attend are read by the best man - check
- People stand to toast the bride and groom - check
- If just the bride is being toasted, the groom stands (it doesn't say anything about just the groom being toasted but I can't imagine that really happens and it didn't last Friday) - check
- Both the bride and groom stand when the parents are being toasted - check
All of these things happened, along with the entire reception finishing a toast with saying, while standing of course, "To Murray and Catharine!" or "To Catharine!" It was very cool and it quickly became obvious to us why the English hold on to these traditions. It really does create a truly special atmosphere. You may be thinking to yourself, wait a minute, I know she said that neither one of them is originally from England. Well, their in lies the British influence on all corners of the earth and, apparently, most weddings in Australia are black tie because Australian guys don't know enough to show up to a wedding in an actual suit so this is the way to get around that problem! Well, at least this is what some of the Aussies told us.
Dancing started a little later than we had expected but that didn't matter because Bon Jovi and Cindy Lauper are apparently played at weddings all over the world. Livin' On a Prayer wasn't quite as animated as it would be in the States but it was close enough. All in all, a really wonderful experience and we were so happy to be part of Murray and Catharine's special day.
We left the reception around 12:30 and headed to meet our Hong Kong posse (so fun that we actually have one of these!) out in Lan Kwai Fong. They were all getting together for a Christmas celebration and of course the party headed to Al's in LKF. It is an experience like none other. All the 80s music you could want, jello shots, dancing on tables and swinging from poles hanging from the ceiling. So funny and so much fun. The only problem with Hong Kong is that there is no bar time. We were there for awhile and then the rest of the wedding reception showed up and 4 hours later we finally made it to bed. Not really all that bad considering we didn't have any commitments on Saturday but our neighbors upstairs started doing remodeling work at 8:30 a.m. Ugh! Definitely a time when we were missing our single family home.
Saturday was mostly a wash but we met our friends Sophie and Richie for dinner. Sophie and I went home early but the boys stayed out. Chris has decided that he needs to stop thinking he is 21 anymore because it makes for really bad hangover at 34. He does rally very well but we keep laughing at how ridiculous we are sometimes. We definitely go out a lot more in Hong Kong than we had of late in Milwaukee.
Sunday we went for an amazing hike on the south side of the island with Sophie and Richie. I can be a bit sadistic when it comes to these kind of things and I was really wanting a hike that would be a good workout. Well, literally 4000 steps up and down later, all of our legs were shaking. I got my work out and worked up a good appetite in the process. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera but the pictures probably wouldn't have turned out very good anyway because the pollution was sort of bad.
Anyway, we had a very fun weekend and are now looking to our 9:15 a.m. flight on Friday so we can catch up on sleep.
It's my little sis's b-day today so Happy Birthday, Ashley! She got to see the Packers wallop the Rams in St. Louis this weekend. Woo hoo!
And, in the spirit of weddings, I want to give a big congrats to my very dear friend, Robyn, who got engaged this weekend to Erich. He popped the question Friday night at what looks like was a very cold, but beautiful, night at Lights in the Park in Chicago. Congratulations you two and I know we're all looking forward to a night of "Mystery Drink".
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