It has been over three years since we have been to a Chinese wedding. One of Jim’s employees, Nina, was having a Shanghai wedding including a church service. We didn’t go to the church service due to kid activities of the day.

We arrived to reception in a hotel banquet room at 5:30pm. The bride, Nina, and the groom, Russ, greeted all the guest with a photo. After taking a photo with the bride and groom, we handed over our red envelope, hongbao (红包)(red pocket) full of cash as a gift. I do have to comment that the hongbao makes gift giving very easy – especially when you don’t know the couple very well.

We entered the banquet hall to find our table. We noticed our names were the only “different” ones at the table.

We sat down to our table and remember that wine is not a standard at the wedding. We had coke, sprit, orange and a beer to enjoy for the night. Hum, may need a glass of wine when we get home!

A common item left on the table for all the guest! Luckily, no one was using them at our table.

The food at this wedding was not as interesting as our last wedding in December 2006. We had normal Chinese food…a lot of food, as usual for Chinese. This dumplings were made by the bride and her friends. They are traditional dumplings from her home town.

This cute little guy was a guest at our table. He was 12 months old and a very happy fellow. I do have to comment on his red cheeks. It is common for ALL children to be overdressed. He came in with 4 layers of shirts/sweaters and a coat. In addition, he had 3 layers of pants. I always wonder how long it must take to change a diaper.

After dinner, we watched a nice video of the bride and groom. There were many speeches in Chinese so we clapped with everyone else. There were even games such as guess the song. The prizes for the night were Hello Kitty small stuff animals – a popular item here. After the final toast to each table…that was our cue to exit!