Julia and Andy get married, again!

Last weekend we went with a group of teachers to Chau Doc for our friends Julia and Andy’s Vietnamese wedding.  They were married last year in Canada, but since Andy’s family is from Vietnam, they wanted to have a Vietnamese wedding also. 

Lucky for us, Andy’s uncle arranged a bus to take us on the 6 hour bus ride to Chau Doc, at no cost to us.  He also paid for our accommodations in a nice, clean hotel that was right next door to the wedding hall/restaurant that he owns!  At the restaurant there were tons of HUGE catfish swimming in the water nearby which Andy’s uncle gives them baguettes to eat.  We were treated to delicious breakfast each morning at the restaurant.  The Vietnamese breakfast I ate on the first day was chicken pho soup and iced coffee.  On the second day we ate rice and pork chops!

It was funny going back to this city since John and I had been to Chau Doc once before as a stop on the “slow boat to Cambodia” from HCMC.  I never imagined that I would ever be back in Chau Doc.  There is not a lot going on in the town, but the Mekong River is always interesting.  On the morning of the wedding, we did a tour again by boat to see the floating markets, floating village, fish farm, and Cham minority village.

The wedding was held in the afternoon at Andy’s uncle’s wedding hall.  First there was a procession of cars around the town to pick up the bride and groom.  Then, we made our way back to the hall where some photos were taken before a snack was served (crackers and beer!) …

Andy and Julia looked awesome!  I took a ton of photos, but I really liked the way the red colour accent mode turned out since Julia was wearing a beautiful red Vietnamese dress.

This wedding was more traditional than the other Vietnamese wedding I attended months ago.  It involved some interesting ceremonial traditions.  I really liked the tea ceremony, where the couple gives tea to married guests, who in turn give them some money as a wedding gift. 

Dinner was a variety of seafood and meat, and more beer.  Mixed drinks don’t seem to exist at weddings here… if you want to drink something, the choices are water, Pepsi, or beer!  There were a few singing performances for entertainment, but Vietnamese people don’t seem to be into dancing at weddings.

The wedding hall cleared out by around 8pm (Vietnamese weddings end early)!  Our group was the last one there, but since the music stopped and food service ended, we didn’t stay much longer.  We had a lot of fun and it was great to see our friends get married (again)!  I'm really happy that we got to be a part of this special day.