Wedding in Singapore Morning: Gate Crashing and Tea Ceremony

 I will preface this by letting you know that I took very few pictures on this day.  Completely against my character, I know.  However this was the groom's request (so we wouldn't have a ton of pictures of people taking pictures) so I'll just have to steal everyone else's photos.  In the meantime, we'll work with mine.

 First order of business: at breakfast we surprised the groom with our custom made shirts!  I'm all about custom clothing and hilarity in numbers.  If we had the time/money, we could have gone crazy with groomspeeps tracksuits and more.  I think we did alright for our last minute scramble, and besides, Singapore is just too dang hot for a tracksuit.

Yup we're his bitches!  Yarn and I got some funny looks completely dolled up hair and makeup plus casual wear.  It's the reaction that makes these moments priceless.

And in the lobby we found this masterpiece, love his hair!

 The boys wore these adorable cuff links. The groom and one of the groomsmen are pilots, the rest of us are just jet setters.

 

Best Man (aka the other woman) and Groomie on their last journey together as singles.  They are like peas in a pod.  Groomie drove slowly so the taffeta decor wouldn't fly off the car.  So maybe we were a bit late for the gate crashing...

I have not previously participated in a Chinese wedding gate crashing, and neither had any of the groomspeeps.  This is the first event of wedding day.  Basically the groomsparty arrives to the bride's home.  We have to complete a series of challenges in order to be deemed worthy of receiving the bride.  That's my understanding of it anyway.  

Common challenges include eating yucky stuff or just paying off the bridal party.  This is Chinese afterall!

For some reason I thought this would be a bunch of boring tasks, and we would go through the motions of getting it done so we could move on to the tea ceremony.  I was so wrong!

The first indication that my perceptions were way off was the joyous giggling heard upon arrival.  Yes, I want to have some fun!  So step 1, pay off the bridesmaids.  I don't know if this is common practice or Groomie's idea, but he filled the cash envelopes with large denominations of foreign currency which in the end amounts to very little.  Best Man was in charge of the negotiations.  This failed and for our first challenge Groomie had to perform a lap dance for the Best Man, to prove he could treat his bride right!  Oh my, it was a sight.  He grooved to Right Said Fred's I'm Too Sexy, but the music was coming from an iphone and not loud enough, making it super awkward!  No dry dancing!

Our next challenge was the food challenge.  A taste of the sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy....  just like marriage.  The sour was easy.  A slice of lemon.  It ended up being sweet and delicious.  For our sweet challenge, we each got a bowl of peanut butter + raisins + sugar + honey.  One bite?  Fine.  A bowl full?  We were getting SICK.  And me, a slow eater, was just shooting down spoonfuls to get it done.  Oh tummy.  We were running out of time so the next food challenges we didn't have to complete, we just needed a bite.  For the bitter challenge we each got something different: bitter drinks, a bitter gourd, and I ended up with a bar of bitter chocolate.  Not what I wanted after that bowl full of sweets!  I think I got through half of it before I hid it elsewhere.  The final challenge was spicy: chilis, wasabi, hot mustard and seaweed on a cracker.  One bite was enough!
 
Since we were low on time, they just demanded the cash so we could move on.  Instead of handing it over to them, the bridesmaids received clues as to where the money was hidden in the apartment.  This really surprised them and once the treasure was found we made it in!

There were a lot of people in this small apartment, so I decided the best thing I could do was stay out of the way.  I think the Groom is supposed to go into the bedroom and retrieve the bride.  There were also some pro pics taken in the bedroom.  I know it should be lovely and all, but I'm really creeped out by it.

ANYWAY, Groomie finally finds his bride and they are beautiful and happy.

 

And this is just the beginning.  More wedding tales coming soon....