The Wedding

It's Christmas Eve here in Hong Kong. The sun is shining and it's a refreshing 13 degrees outside. I needed both a jacket and a thick scarf to not get cold when we went out for a local breakfast this morning. I ate a toast with jam, while Honey ate a normal local breakfast with noodles and meat in a soup. I ate a second breakfast when we got home again, a meatball sandwich with beetroot salad and home made meatballs. So freaking good :)! 

Anyway, I figured it's about time I update about the wedding. It has just been crazy busy the few weeks before the big day, but it's been fun. My parents, baby brother and his girlfriend arrived to Hong Kong the week before the wedding, but that alone is a story by itself :). The day before the wedding day my sister arrived from Australia with all her luggage to move back to Sweden after over 10 years in Cairns, Qld. I felt so proud that she stopped by in Hong Kong first to be a part of the wedding ceremony! 

Let's start from the beginning. It's Dec 15, 1.30am at night. Honey and I are about to go to bed after preparing stuff for the wedding, such as pictures, decorations, clothes etc. We are both exhausted and fall asleep as soon as the head hit the pillow. I slept like a log until my alarm went off at 7.30am. I felt well rested when I got up, took a shower, packed my stuff to go to my sister's hotel room (she was offered a suite due to the hotel being over booked, and the suite was bigger than our apartment). 

I went to Starbucks to buy breakfast and met the hair- and make up girl and we walked over to the hotel together. It took about two hours to get the make up and hair ready for the big day. We had to make sure it would stay nice the whole day. And it sure did! She did such a good job! 

Now it's time to get in to the red Chinese dress and go to Honey's parents for the first tea ceremony. We get there a little late, but I figured it's okay, not like they can start without me, and it's our day. 10 minutes late is okay in my mind, and no one seem to notice. The tea ceremony is a Chinese wedding tradition where the wedding couple serve tea to the older family members and they wish us happiness and give us money or gold. It's all very simple but at the same time a ritual. Even my parents we sat down to drink tea and give us money. It was so sweet to see. 

When this ceremony is over we go to eat lunch, dim sum, at a local place close to Honey's parents apartment. It's around 12pm now. I still don't feel nervous and eat a lot. They had ordered lots of dumplings with vegetable and meat fillings and other good dishes that fits us Westerners. 

Right after 1pm Honey, myself and his mom head towards Cyberport and the hotel Le Meridien in his mom's car. The traffic is not very nice, and we arrive a little later than we want to. Our next tea ceremony is suppose to start at 2.30pm in the hotel room that we got as a complimentary of having the wedding here. It's such a nice room, with a view over the forest and the water. Here we get ready. I change in to the wedding dress, Honey put on his tuxedo. This is Hong Kong, so even if the room was nice it still wasn't that big, but we still managed to squeeze around 15 people in there all at once. Maybe we were even more, I don't remember. While we were serving tea to more older relatives we also spoke to the lawyer about the actual ceremony, and signing some papers. It was a bit chaotic, but it still worked out just fine. I mean, normally I get stressed when things don't go as planned, but in this case I was just fine with it all. 

The wedding ceremony was scheduled to start at 3pm sharp, but by that time we were still serving tea. But around 3.15pm we were all ready. People were entertained by the MC singing and Brian playing the guitar before we walked in. I really liked that. Then my dad and I walked in together and dad handed me over to Honey (who had been playing the violin while I walked in, and I didn't notice!). I guess I was a bit nervous by now. Yeah, I totally was, because halfway through a prayer by one of Honey's mom's friends I realized I had forgotten my wedding bouquet at the room. Yeah, talk about blunder. I had my sister go get it after the ceremony. I mean, it would be such a waste to not show it off since it was so beautiful. 

The ceremony was beautiful, we read our own vows, cried a bit, said Yes and kissed. It was all very touching, at least for us. When we were done the picture taking started. Oh My Goodness! I don't think I have been in this many pictures before in my whole life combined that I was during the wedding day! We had hired two excellent professional photographers who were taking pictures all the time. And of course all other people there. I was smiling so much that my face started hurting! We had to take pics with each and every guest! And there was around 150 guests there! I was exhausted after this haha. I'm not used to it, but apparently that's normal at weddings in Hong Kong. Everyone was so nice. Some of Honey's students were at the reception. There was one girl who sat down next to me, slowly moved closer to me, holding out her phone to take a picture of her and I together, but she didn't really dare to ask, probably because she had to speak English to me. I laughed a little, told her to move closer and handed her phone to one of her friends to took a pic of us. After that many of them dared to come up to me for pictures. It was so cute :). 

I barely had time to eat or drink anything. My excellent sister, who I appointed bridesmaid just days before the wedding, took great care of me. She got me water, wine and a piece of cake. She made sure my t-zone didn't shine and that I had enough lip gloss to still look like a beautiful bride. 

I think my wedding dress was super nice. It had a wintery feel over it, and it was perfect for this kind of wedding. I even had a train! I must admit that it was super tight over my upper body. My sister had to shove in my back fat (!) and I had to get used to shallow breathing haha. The dress was rented and although I felt very beautiful in it I was happy to return it the day after the wedding. 

Honey had his tuxedo tailor made. Since he's performing every now and then he will use it again. And he looked so freaking handsome in it. It melts my heart. He sure knows how to carry clothes, almost like a James Bond, it just fits him so well. 

We will open this box on our 1 year wedding day! It contains
a bottle of Amarone and notes from all the people at the dinner. 

People had a good time after the wedding ceremony. We had to chase people out after 5.30pm (we only had the venue til then). I changed in to a cocktail dress and could breathe again. We then went to Jimmy's Kitchen, where we had invited 48 people for a nice wedding dinner. It was a very relaxing night with a four course meal and drinks. I was exhausted and sat most of the night with my family, chatting and laughing, while Honey ran around and talked to his friends, which was perfectly fine. It was mostly his friends there and he got what he wanted. I wanted to sit and chat with my family, so I got what I wanted as well. When I talked to people after the dinner they were all happy about it. They said it was nice and relaxing, and they really appreciated that. I was happy to hear, because that is what I wanted. 

Now it's over, the wedding day is over, and it's time for Mr and Mrs Wan to go back home. And I slept like a baby that night too, very happy with everything :). 

Yeah, people call me Mrs Wan now, but I am keeping my last name for now, and so is he. We are both happy with that. We are still married, and celebrate one week and 2 days today on Christmas eve! Woohoo! :) 

I love you Honey, looking forward to grow old together!