The day before the wedding, my family and I tried to follow some Vietnamese traditions .... We bought roses, fruit, wine, banh com, banh phu the (the kind of cake that you must have to bring to the girl's house in engagement) and burned incense to pray for good lucky and to have a nice wedding, and that Thao and I will be happy forever.
Look, we make a good Vietnamese family, right? ;))
In Vietnam, normally the engagement is at least 1 week or a month before the wedding. But since my family came from Canada, we had it only one day before! So tomorrow is the engagement day, but after tomorrow is the wedding. A nice short engagement!! We have 7 boxes of gifts for the engagement with stuff like Trau cau, pig, banh com, banh phu the, tre sen, mut sen.... wine, cigarettes, cake, coffee....
DAY I - Engagement
Early on the morning of the engagement, at 4:00 am, Thao went to the studio for makeup and hair. My sister Muriah and Thao's best friend Ling from Singapore went with her. Luckily I could sleep some more ;))
Look at the clock on the wall in this picture then you can see it is 5:45 am... almost done.
6:30 am. Downstairs of my apartment, we are puting all the stuff into the car. Oh yeah, lets go. Hey look what this guy is carrying, there is wine and cookies that my parents brought from Canada and chocolate that Ling brought from Singapore too.
Arrived at Thao's home... 7 girls and 7 boys are ready for help us to bring TRAP' - Engagement gifts... Look at them, the girls are in red, and boys with white shirt, red tie and dark pant. Ready?
Look so great. Ready.
The groom's family walks down the walkway.
Now, the Trau cau go first, then the pig, and.... Many cameramen... taking pictures and video....
Arriving with the engagement gifts...
Wowoww, seems heavy.
And now, in the living room. The groom's family siting down and started to talk to Thao's parents... ;))
Both families are here. My mom is wearing a red Ao Dai today, she looks like a Vietnamese woman. Even though Thao was very busy to plan everything, she still made an Ao Dai for my mom.
This is trau cau, you can't be without it in a Vietnamese wedding. Trau cau is a symbol for faithfulness
From right side of picture. Thao's Dad, Thao's Mom and people in family. Thao's Dad is talking about the program for the wedding party.
After the meeting at livingroom, now it's time to bring all the stuff to go upstairs where they have the ancestor shrine...
Thao's Dad is bringing all the engagement gifts to put on the shrine. It means that we are happy to tell to Thao's grandparents that have passed away that Thao is getting married and they will bless her, so Thao will have a very happy marriage forever.... You see on top, that is her grandparents and aunt, they were Thao's dad's parents *ong ba noi*.
Praying to grandparents to ask them to bless us to have a happy marriage.
From the balcony on the 2nd floor
Font of the shrine
One more pose
Next, we get ready to take some gifts to go to the house that Thao's grandparents (Thao's Mom's parents *ong ba ngoai*) used to live in.
Praying to Thao's other grandparents...
We came back and take picture with the girls in red. The first little girl in red is Chip -Thao's sister's daughter, she is 9 year old, she is really a cool girl with verry nice hair.
My Mom is one of the girls in red too! ;))
Now it is time to get to work! My parents, my sister and grandmom start to decorate with many flowers that we brought from Hanoi. Thao is really a good shopper.... We bought 1000 roses but just paid about 10 usd. Yeah, verrrry cheap!!
I had to blow up the balloons... Hey hunny, wait to take one pose.
Thao's parents house has a very big garden. This is the walkway. We are puting up lanterns and flowers everywhere.
But we still saved a lot of flowers for the next day too.
Check one more time. Ready?
Ok, done now. Ready to welcome the guests
Everywhere is ready now
Thao is with her closest friend from Sigapore. Her name is Ling, her nickname on Yahoo chat is Terrible. So my family and everyone called her Terri ;))
Thao is with my sister Muriah. They are sweetest cutest sisters now
Girls in red are walking on the village streets. Looks like a postcard I saw
Thao is posing with the nieces
Oh yeah, don't forget we are the actor and actress in this movie today hunny!
Wowowow... getting dark. Turn on the lights. Wowow you never know how it was so great with the lights from the lantern... Looks so amazing at night
Its time for guests to come...
Ready to say Hello to the guests now
Thao is introducing her husband's family to the guests
Grandmom and Mom go to every table to cheer with guests
Thao is pouring wine for everyone...
Now, its time to cheer...
Many kinds of different food are ready on the tables.... Here are just some, still have much more
Oh yeah, it was a long day for Thao. Party 1 of the first day is done now... She needs a shower to get ready for Party 2 tomorrow. Hang in there hunny! You are working so hard every day.
Look amazing at night...
Love story is here...
................................................
DAY II - WEDDING
The new day is here, under the sun the garden is verry nice with lots of decorations. Time for the next party! About 400 guests are coming today.
The girl to do makeup for Thao came from Hanoi very late. And Thao said she was not very good ;))
My sister and Mom are preparing the wedding cake
The two families are also ready for the main wedding day now
Done with make up and wearing the western wedding dress! The wedding dress is very long so she always has to carry it, LOL.
My dad gives his speeches. When listening to the speeches, tears were always falling down on Thao's face....
Now it is Thao's dad's speech
"Tram nam hanh phuc" - 100 years of happiness
Ladies from the groom's family: My mom, my sister, my grandmom. Everyone looks so happy.
We are the most happy couple in the world :D
Oh here we are wearing our traditional Wedding dress. It looks so amazing! Red is the color for the wedding day, and it also means happiness.
Grandmom is watching her granddaughter- in-law in her traditional dress.
We get a 1 min break...
Happiness is here...
Now it is time for me to read my speech in Vietnamese... Thao said "make sure you read your speech the right way ok!" :D
While I am reading the Vietnamese speech, Thao was always moving her mouth like she was afraid if I make a mistake! :))
Giving the rings for each other
1, 2, 3 ..... Kissing
Mom is giving the gift to the daughter
Now my mom is giving the gifts for the daughter-in-law. That is gold jewerly from my grandma who passed away. And now it is Thao's job to save it to give to her children...
Guests are listening to the speeches
Dad is hugging his daughter and she is crying... a touching moment
We wanted to include some western traditions in our wedding. Here we are, cutting the wedding cake.
Yummy ...
Ahahaha... Put cake wrong so look at her nose :))
Ok ok this time it's your turn... :D
Open your mouth :))
Then it was time for the other western tradition: throwing the wedding bouqet. The single girls
had to try to catch it, and whoever got it would be the next one to get married.
Chien Tran and Akiko san....
Thao and her Mom
My whole family came from around the world to be with my on my special day
Happiest couple.
Happy tears...
Too busy and forgot to eat since morning so Thao and I are very tired and hungry, thats why she is crying... Aww poor you babe... Hang in there... Muahh......
Awww so cute...
With nieces...
Some of Thao's family. From left side: Ha - youngest sister (5th sister); Mai - younger sister (4th sister) is holding her son Tom-1 year old; little girl in white dress is Chip I - daughter of the 2th sister. The next 3 kids are nieces; the guy standing next to Thao is the 4th sister's husband.
Friends of Thao from high school, most of them are school teachers
Friends of Thao from university
Friends from Punch
We love this pic very much. Oh, we forgot to tie some cans behind the motobike, hahaha.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here - for our wedding album photos, we had a photo shoot at Ao Vua (King pond), near to Thao's parent's house in Ba Vi.
.........................................................
