weddings, you'll never know what will/can happen

12.02pm

let me start off my blog by apologizing to you guys for not writing in a while. i was back in my hometown, kuala lumpur, for my brother's wedding reception and i had a blast! nothing like catching up as well as bonding with old friends and relatives whom i've not seen in ages (they live all around the world). therefore, i was super busy. 

talking about weddings. i dont know if this has ever happened to you(to those of you who are married), but there's some "funny" stuff that goes on. when i say "funny" i dont mean by haha funny but just find it rather odd or strange even. and you wont find out about it until its all over when you think back about what had happened on your big day.

well let me share with you one incident. when i got married and had my reception and usually in asia especially for us chinese folks, we will get a "red packet" (hong pao which means some kind of blessing or well wishes) with money inside from the invitees. and more often than not, those invited would pay according to how lavish the venue is. like for example, if say your friend is having it at a 5 star hotel, you would have to roughly guess how much per table is and you "pay" for yourself. but if you want to give more, thats really up to you (and how close you are to the couple). but generally speaking nobody gives little bit or under "pay" when they attend these kind of functions. long story short, you gotta pay just about the right amount or you give a little extra so as not to embarrass yourself when the couple opens the "hong pao" and sees how "much/little" you've given! im sure you dont want that to happen. everyone has to write down their names at the back of the "hong pao" so that the couple would know who has given how much. and sometimes, couples would want to send these people thank you cards. 

so anyways, i clearly remember receiving 100 baht (thats thai money ok) and that roughly converts to just under S$4.00!! omfg! who on earth gives a newly married couple $4.00 and then have an 8 course chinese meal at a restaurant? well, there you go, there's a first time for everything. and this is how an adult behaves. i cant begin to imagine what that person gives when he/she attends other weddings. i cant believe it either ok. ooh so shy! and very hard to believe! so dear friends, when you attend any chinese wedding, please for gods sake, google the venue maybe even ring the venue up if number is given and find out so that you roughly know how much to put into the red packet so you wont look so stupid or being branded a cheapskate! 

another very unpleasant thing that happened(also during my wedding), was that i had invited a group of my colleagues from work and i'd given them a table where they can have a good view of the whole ballroom and watch me make my grand entrance (hahaha). but guess what? the entire table decided to boycott my wedding dinner. i call it boycott, dont ask.none of them bothered to ring and to tell me that they were not coming or weren't able to attend. just no show. it was a sight for sore eyes having to make my grand entrance and to see that the table reserved for them was empty! and the icing on the cake that really pissed me off were 2 things - first was that we had to pay for the entire no show table and the other was when i went back to work the following week, none of these people even bothered to apologize to me, they just acted like nothing had happened. just another weekend for them. can you beat that? naturally, i stayed away from them and cut them out of my life. i dont need these kind of so called "friends".

and just so you know, before i took off for my wedding leave, i went around the office double checking with them (which was 3 days before my dinner) to remind them about it (my wedding invites were already given out) and it was a GO. and you see what happened on my big day? bitches! (not sorry for my language here!)

well, all that happened back in 1998. yup, it was a long time ago but still remains embedded inside my head. how to ever forget such things? would you? could you? oh and you know what else, there' were some who attended but never gave a red packet! yes, you should expect all these nonsense coming from adults or your so called friends/relatives. finally, there are also those that bring their entire family and pay the minimum. 

so guys, if you are a chinese(and living in asia), about to tie the knot, please take note of all that im sharing in here. expect the unexpected like i did. its shocking and it would leave your mouth hanging open but thats how some folks can behave, surprisingly. good luck!


ttfn

1.00pm