Jottings from the Granite Studio

After months of planning, YJ and I finally tied the knot on September 8th in Tianjin. YJ looked beautiful (of course) and I tried to keep up with all that was happening. We hired a bus to take our friends from Beijing to Tianjin for the evening wedding and our good friend Nels arranged cocktails for everybody for the ride.

Of course when the guests finally did arrive, we proceeded to try and blow them up. For you see, the bride’s car arrived just ahead of the bus and as the car carrying YJ swept up the drive to the hotel entrance, her uncles set off a thunderous collection of firecrackers (really, almost m-80s) just as the first of our friends and co-workers were disembarking the bus. Here I am, trapped between greeting my friends and shielding the wife of YJ’s boss from flying shrapnel and debris while YJ’s family is urging me to run through the explosives to meet her car.

No matter. There were no injuries and nerves were calmed through cocktails. I greeted YJ’s car, bowed three times (once with her aunts pulling on my neck so as to ensure a suitably low bow–keep in mind that her aunts average 5′4 and I’m 6′2.) I picked up YJ and carried her through the door of the hotel and then we went upstairs for the service. It was the best kind–short and to the point. We exchanged vows, our parents made speeches, we served tea to our respective inlaws and received hong bao. (As I explained to my parents earlier, YJ and I will serve you tea and then we are going to mug you. Bring cash.)

After we posed for (many) pictures, the guests sat down to dinner. As the happy couple, of course, we made the rounds, greeting family and guests, thanking people, receiving gifts, and drinking a ton of shots. Fortunately, I (not so) secretly replaced about 95% of the baijiu bottle with mineral water and entrusted said bottle to my best man T.M.H. for dispensing and refilling as needed, which was often. Living in Beijing as I do, I’m not usually stoked about being served faked liquor, but this was one case where it was not only acceptable but preferable.

Following dinner we danced a little bit, had some more drinks, posed for more pictures, and had a chance to chat with the guests. We had earlier smuggled a 12-piece McNuggets into YJ’s dressing room, so whenever we felt the blood sugar dropping or YJ had to disappear for one of her four costume changes, we would sneak a chicken nugget or two in place of “dinner.”

All told, it was a great time. The hotel was very nice and the staff was (more or less) helpful. True, during the “serving the tea to the parents” part of the ceremony, they forgot to make the tea (it was more like “serving the cup of lukewarm water to the parents”) and I had to threaten the speaker/sound guy with bodily injury when he decided that after 45 minutes, the wedding would be better off without music. (He was miffed we wanted to play our own CDs and not his “super special Chinese wedding mix.”) We couldn’t invite as many people as we would have hoped and some friends and family were unable to make the journey, but it was wonderful to see everybody who was there and to share the day with them.

Who knows, maybe we’ll even take a honeymoon…now back to work.
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