[Hyperborea]

Quote:

And in case it's not common knowledge, when two white people get married, the bride's parents tradtionally pay.

The interplay of "traditions" can cause a lot of amusing stories. *A good friend of mine from grad school days is originally from mainland China where a lot of the Chinese traditions have been left behind. *However his wife is from Taiwan where they still keep the traditions.

A common thing as part of the Chinese wedding tradition is that the groom and his family must go and get the bride from her family. *So, even though his wife (fiancée at the time) and her parents were staying with his parents they got a hotel room the night before the wedding so he could go and "collect" her. *I think this is a carryover from the old days where brides would often come from the "next" village and be brought by the groom's family.

So, on the day of the wedding he goes to the hotel to pick up his bride and knocks on the door. *She asks with the door closed "Who is it?". *My friend getting annoyed with all this "tradition stuff" says, "Who do you think it is?" *This went on for a bit until he finally said, "It's me XXX. *Were you expecting someone else?" *I had to work hard to keep from bursting out in laughter.

Another wedding tradition (Chinese but also Japanese) is that everybody, I mean everybody, comes up to the head table and pours the couple a drink. *They then toast. *The problem is that you'd be incredibly hammered if you drank every toast so there's a bucket under the head table to pour the drinks away. *My friend though is incredibly nervous because his mother has pushed him to make a speech later in the evening (he's shy about speaking to groups) so he's not dumping the drinks. *His speech was incredibly amusing but too bad for his new bride that he had to be carried out at the end of the evening.