Wedding banquet

So continuing on from my previous post, this post will be on what I wore to attend my cousin's wedding banquet at night. Yeap, that's how many functions there are for one Chinese wedding here in Malaysia.

As you can see, I reused my shoes and clutch. I think it's the perfect way to save some time and not have to rack my brains to think of matching accessories to my dress.

My hair was a fail as I didn't have enough time and the weather here is just too humid for my curls to last.

There was a funny incident involving my blurness. The restaurant where the wedding banquet was held is really big and there were 3 functions going on at the same time. After cross-checking the guest list and getting my table number, I proceeded to walk confidently...into the wrong wedding hall!

I could see "my table" from afar and I remember thinking to myself, "Who are those strangers sitting at my table?" (Because usually family will be put together). My cousin brother had to come chasing after me to direct me to the right hall hahaha. Tres embarassing!

The dinner was the usual Chinese dinner with a 10 course meal. Yes, 10 courses. For those who have never attended a typical Chinese wedding, allow me to explain a little. Especially for events like these, Chinese restaurants usually have giant round tables (which seats 10-12 people) set up, which I definitely prefer as you can see and speak to everyone around the table as opposed to Western restaurants with its typical long rectangular tables.

10 giant dishes are served one at a time and placed in the middle, so everyone is literally sharing the food. Not to worry, there are serving spoons. After each course is finished, it will be promptly replaced with the next dish. If you think about it, it's actually very good because if you're a picky eater, you've 10 different choices to choose from.

I'm not sure if this is something that only us Malaysian Chinese practice (because my Hong Kong and Taiwan friends don't seem to know about it), but toasts are compulsory at all Chinese weddings. It's similar to the Western style where someone makes a short speech and everyone toasts to the couple.

Normal, right?

Except that the entire hall toasts in unison by screaming "Yam seng!" (drink to victory, in Cantonese). Also it is tradition for everyone to drag out the word "Yam" (quite literally until you're out of breath) so it's more like "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam SENG!!!"

And this is done 3 times. Phew!

There's also the cake-cutting ceremony which was you know, cake-cutting.

They showed some videos of the couple and there was one where they interviewed them about how they first met etc. It really was quite sweet.

The dinner ended with full tummies and smiles all around.

The shoes are from Oasap.com. They are actually pretty comfy considering the height. The platform helps, certainly. It was only towards the end of the night when my toes felt a bit squished and hurt a bit when I walked.

I am a shoe size 38 and for me, these were true to size.


Are Chinese wedding banquets similar in your country?