My Cousin's Wedding

Like all other Chinese weddings I've been to, the day starts early. The groom's family is at their home, and the bride's family is at theirs. The groom and his groomsmen drive over to the bride's home, but they're kept from entering.The bridesmaids block the door, requesting a payment for entry. The bridesmaids start the bargaining at $999. The groom counters with 99 cents. The bridesmaids suggest $999 plus a song from the groom. This continues for a few minutes, usually ending up around $200-300.
When finally inside, the bride and groom pour tea for all of the bride's elders. In return, the bride gets jewelry and cash. Here's me and Brooke receiving our tea....Then everyone hops in their car and drives to the groom's house. Here the tea pouring ceremony continues for the groom's family. This is my grandpa entering the house...After a marathon picture-taking session, everyone relaxes during lunch and then goes home to prepare for the evening's reception.
The reception was held at a Chinese restaurant. The meal was the standard Chinese wedding fare: shark fin soup (sometimes bird's nest soup), jellyfish, crab claw wrapped with ground shrimp, Peking duck, steamed fish. The groom and bride made the obligatory rounds to each table to toast their guests. This usually ends with a sloppy, drunken groom, but on this evening, the groom didn't drink at all. What a wimp.

My cousin dancing with grandma....All the guests received a small refrigerator magnet with a boy and a girl figurine. When you combine the adolescent sense of humor of me and my brother with the disposable cameras set at every table, you get photos like this....