Something Old Something New

What will happen when American culture meets Chinese culture? In my case, was a twist wedding. I am from China, and my wife is an American. I never thought I would be marrying an American girl in the land of America. I always thought I will marry my girlfriend in China before I came here, but everything was different when I came to the United States. On my very first day in America, I met this girl and she was so beautiful. She stole my heart right the way. At the moment our eyes connected I knew she was the one I will be spending the rest of my life with. Therefore we were getting married. The customs and rituals of a wedding are totally different between China and the United States. A traditional American wedding should have “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.” Chinese weddings, on the other hand, want everything to be new. In comparison, the difference between both countries is the wedding place, the apparel and the ceremony. My parents wanted us to have a traditional Chinese wedding, but because my wife is an American, I knew she wanted to have an American style wedding. As a result, instead having a traditional wedding we had a Chinese American twist wedding.
In a traditional Chinese wedding, people hold their wedding ceremony at their own home. We had our wedding at a church, and we decorated it with ribbons and flowers, just like other Americans. Well, at least like the rest of her family. Meanwhile at home; we did it the Chinese way. We decorated the house with a lot of things that meaning happy, lucky and marriage. We had a big red paper Chinese character “happy” sticking on our wall in every room. In the United States, most people hold their wedding at the church. The reason that the Chinese hold their wedding at their own home is because of tradition and religion. They think their own home is the most sacred place for a wedding because they will live there together for the rest of their life. It is the same for Americans. They hold their wedding in a church because they think marriage is sacred and they want to get married in front of god in the most sacred place.
In the wedding during the ceremony she wore a custom made Vera Wang wedding dress, but at the reception she wore a traditional Chinese wedding dress to respect my parents and me. That was so sweet of her. A traditional Chinese wedding dress is a red phoenix gown. The Chinese bride wears a red phoenix gown because phoenix is the symbol woman, and red is happy and good luck. The American bride wears a white gown because they believe white represents chastity and their divine love.
When it came to the ceremony, we did it in both ways because my parents insisted. We had the traditional American ceremony at the church, and at home we had the Chinese traditional ceremony. It was a lot of work, but we had to because my parents paid for the wedding. In the traditional Chinese wedding, the most important part of the ceremony is that the couples have to worship to gods and ancestors with wine. They also toast to elders. The couple toasts because they follow the tradition, and they want to thank all the people that bless them. The special part of an American wedding is that the couple needs to promise to each other. They are standing in front of a priest. The priest reads the bible and a speech to the couple. After the couple agrees to the priest, then they will kiss each other, and their ceremony is finished
My wife and I both very glad that we had this twist Chinese American wedding, because it was unique. We are the only couple who did it among all the people we know. The most important thing about this wedding is that it satisfied us and both our parents. Although tradition is very important for some people including my parents, but not us. We are not the kind of traditional people. In our heart our wedding was our tradition. Reinvention is the new tradition of the new generation.