My Big Fat Vietnamese Wedding

Okay but actually it was a big skinny Vietnamese wedding party. The actual wedding is tomorrow morning.

We arrived at the Grand Palace bearing gifts

It was pretty grand

People have wedding photos taken before their wedding. They do it all over the place.
It isn't uncommon to see a bride and groom posing in the middle of streets, museums, beaches, etc.

The beautiful bride in dress number 1

After taking a photo with the bride and groom we were ushered
into the wedding hall.

It was so fancy.

mot, hai, ba– yo! The waiters constantly filled up our beer glasses like
they do with water. My glass was never empty. Not that it would have been
without the help of the waiters... But actually, I had a 10 p.m curfew.

Entertainment was provided.

Then there was a big flash of light

And out walked the bride and groom.

There were fireworks going off.

They cut the cake. Luckily for the people sitting in the back of the room (me)
we could easily see thanks to the two jumbotrons.

There was a parade of champagne.

They poured it down the champagne fountain.

Again I felt so fortunate to have the big screen to look at.

Bottoms up.

Why not have more fireworks?

So then we got to eat. Guess what this is! JELLYFISH! Twice in three days!
The jellyfish is the speckled stuff.

The second course was seafood soup.

The bride and groom came back out. Wedding dress number 2.

Course 3 was shrimp that were very messy to eat.

 

 

There were a few secret agent-esque people walking around.

OMG dinner rolls! Something I haven't seen in weeks.

Some more soup.

Bobby and Jeremy showed off their custom made suits. Saigon square specialty.
So awesome yet so hideous.

These shrimp go into the hotpot (the flowered pot behind the shrimp)
and then after it is cooked into the bowls of noodles.

The simmering hotpot. By this point we were all full.

The end result!

After a delicious dinner we sang kia con buom vang. It is a children
song about butterflies sung in the tune of Frere Jaques. We deserved
a standing ovation but did not receive one.

Mikala got macked on by this stud. He was a singing machine.

Meanwhile the bride changed into wedding dress number 3.

But I had to leave to get home! We were saluted goodnight by these
kind fellows.

Then I hopped on a xe om (the taxi motorbikes) and sped across the city. It was 45 minutes ride but lucky for me my xe om driver spoke a little English. He kept calling me the #1 passenger because a) I sang him the kia con buom vang song and b) I knew how to get home and told him when to turn. He absolutely loved it when I sang the butterfly song and throughout the ride he would randomly burst out singing. Between his magnificent solos he thought it would be fun to name all the states he knew, surprisingly the second state he named was Ohio. Then he went on to list the 63 provinces in Vietnam. It was a wonderful xe om ride.