Our Traditional Wedding Feast

Firecrackers in the street in front of the bridal car.










The bride out of the car getting ready to go up to her bridal chamber.

The groom leading the bride through the throngs of relatives and guests into his home.

The line of well-wishers outside the bridal chamber waiting to have their picture taken inside with the bride.










Cousin Jill in line downstairs waiting to go up to see the bride.




















A well-wisher having her picture taken with the now cross-eyed bride.
















The first few courses of the wedding feast on the serving table outside the house. Cooking stoves are in the road to the right. Door to the house is to the left. (Notice the banner with the 8 Immortals over the front of the house.)








The bride descends to attend the wedding feast.













The bride and groom scarf down a few mouthfuls of food.











Toasting the guests one table at a time.











There are 21 tables in the street and living room and one at a nearby restaurant.










Well-wishers come to the head table to toast the bride and groom.

Passing out candy and cigarettes as guests leave the feast.

After the church wedding, some of our friends, who were not going to the dinner, took care of all the clean-up for us. The Liu relatives, my American relatives, and our closest friends boarded the buses and cars to head down to Chung-li for the traditional wedding feast. The bride was supposed to arrive only after everyone was seated. Liu Yuni and I stayed behind with one of the fancier cars, so I could make my spectacular entrance. The weather had turned cold and a little rainy; two of Liu Yuni’s friends ran home to get coats and came back to ride in the car with us. I was a little worried about how my parents and American friends would do at the party with the Liu relatives, but we kept waiting around until his friends returned. In those days, there were no cell phones in Taiwan, so we had no way to contact them to find out when they were coming. It turned out that their home was two bus rides away. We did not set out until almost an hour after everyone had left.

Once started we sped down the highway from Chung-li to Taipei. The guests were all seated at the tables drinking soda and beer and eating watermelon seeds and talking and laughing. They had divided themselves among Mandarin, Hakka, and English speakers. A number of the neighbors realized that we were getting married and invited themselves over for the feast. All the tables were filled to the overflowing with guests. Smaller children had no seats of their own, but ate from their parents bowls and ran around among the tables. Liu Yuni’s military unit had not yet arrived when we got there. When they did get there, Liu Yuni’s eldest sister and brother-in-law had to take them to the restaurant at the corner and give them their own special feast so we could keep our promise to his commander.

The bridal car was decorated with a flower wreath on the grille. A number of the boys in the Liu clan with Liu Yuntian were waiting at the outermost alley in their neighborhood with baskets of firecrackers. When they saw the car turn in off the county road, they lit the first string of firecrackers and ran ahead of our car to the next intersection. They heralded us in with long strings of firecrackers at every intersection. Several tables for the closest relatives had not been set up yet because the bride had to drive under the tents to get out of the car. As our car pulled into the tent, two uncles lit large strings of firecrackers on the road in front of the car. We sat inside the car until the firecrackers had stopped popping, and then the car drove in under the tent. I was handed out by Liu Yuni and led into the house. Since everyone had seen me in my red silk dress, I was now in my maroon and red winter coat as my second outfit of the evening. Liu Yuni’s sisters and mother took me off his hand and led me through the tables and up the stairs to my bedroom where I changed into my chi-pao (cheongsam) and then sat on the bed.

The car was moved out of the tent, the other tables were set up, and the appetizer course of the wedding feast was served to the guests. I sat in my bedroom for the first three or four courses while everyone took turns coming up to see my bridal chamber and have their pictures taken with the bride. I gave lucky US pennies instead of red envelopes to the children. Finally, Liu Yuni’s sisters came to bring me down to the feast. I was seated at the head table with my relatives, teacher, Liu Yuni’s parents, and the English interpreter. I got to eat a few bites of food, and then people started coming over to toast the bride. (I was only given tea to drink.) Then Liu Yuni, Pa Liu, Eldest Sister, and I had to go around to all the tables and toast all the guests. When we had finished the tables in the living room and tent, we walked to the restaurant on the corner and toasted Liu Yuni’s army buddies. We got back to our table, and I ate a few more bites in between people coming to toast us. By this time, some of the guests had finished already and were beginning to leave. Liu Yuni and I had to stand at the outside end of the tent with trays of candy and cigarettes and say good-bye to all the guests. By the time, everyone had left, the cooks were cleaning up their pots in the gutter, and the feast was over.

Now it was time to take my relatives to the hotel. The next morning we were going to drop my parents off at the airport for their flight home, and then we would head off on our honeymoon with my cousins. As we got into the car to take them to the hotel, my parents realized that their luggage was in one of the uncles’ cars, and it had already gone back to Toufen (a town an hour south of Chung-li). Of course, they didn’t know which uncle they rode with, and things had been so confused that no one remembered who had driven them. We called the uncles and cousins whose cars had been used until we found the person with my parents’ luggage. We left my relatives at the hotel, and then Liu Yuni and I drove off to Toufen to get my parents’ luggage with their passports and plane tickets. It was after midnight by the time we had delivered the luggage to them and gotten home. And we had to leave with my parents for the airport very early the next morning. But Liu Yuni and Pa Liu had to count the money gifts and figure out how much we had to spend on our honeymoon. We got very little sleep that night, but it was NOT anyone’s typical wedding night.