Two years ago today
was our second wedding day
What a day what a day
On our second wedding day.
It wasn’t that we got married twice,
But once just wouldn’t suffice.

First one we had was stateside…
then in Shanghai my momma cried.
We didn’t do the serving of the tea*
actually there was no real ceremony.

We paid for the expensive banquet but how?
To be honest it all came from so many HONG BAO!**
We showed everyone around Shanghai City
But which wedding was Michelle more pretty?

There were friends from near and friends from far,
But no traditions here for an open bar.***
By the way there were not one silly Chinese wedding game
Others had told me of their wedding day shame.

No red sedan chair,****
just a crown in her hair
It’s ok, You can go ahead and stare!

*The traditional Chinese family during the wedding festivities and before the banquet, the bride and groom will serve their mom and dad tea as a way of respecting them and thanking them for doing a good job raising them.

**A hong bao or 红包 is a traditional Chinese wedding custom.  Nobody brings gifts to Chinese weddings, well maybe dumb foreigners do, but they bring little red packets of money.  The amount of money depends on many different things and usually causes much discussion for the guests before the wedding.  The custom also is, you should remember how much your single friends gave you at your wedding because when they get married… you should give them as much or more!  A bit of cultural insight for you!

***open bar 是美国有名的婚礼的事情。新娘的爸妈付了婚宴的钱以后，大家都可以喝很多很多酒。随便你，都是免费的！怪不得很多美国人在他们朋友的婚宴上喝醉了！

****A sedan chair dates back a long time ago when the bride would be brought to the grooms house in a big chair that was red carried by about 4 strong men.  Some people do this in their weddings nowadays but it was a bit exessive and probably mad expensive.

If you want to check out the real post from our Shanghai wedding, here is the link to the official write up of the wedding.  Hope everyone had a good time!

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