A Fusion of our Backgrounds
Last week, a girlfriend told me how she liked what I'd written about my engagement ring. I mentioned it to Lee, and he added that there was a whole lot more meaning to the ring than what I'd written. Actually the thought was about tying the knot. The different golds represent past, present and future. But also represent our different backgrounds and creating a new one.
The photo probably couldn't show you how the three golds - yellow gold, rose gold and white gold - are beautifully fused and crafted together to make one band. Lee's mention of the merging of our different backgrounds is also something I'd been thinking about to make our wedding reception unique.
Our differences of culture isn't merely from the obvious Caucasian and Asian union. My background, as far as six generations that I know of from both sides of my parents includes Spanish, Filipino, Thai and Chinese heritages. While Lee's side of the family has Scottish (his surname), Maori, Irish and Spanish heritages. Yeah, we're definitely rojak (fruit salad). So how would we incorporate some of these traditional customs into our wedding?
Seeing as Spanish is the common denominator to both our heritages, I'd looked up Spanish wedding customs (which the Filipino customs invariably share) and found the tradition of the groom giving the bride 13 coins.
The ceremony of passing of the arras from the groom to the bride has been an integral part of every Filipino wedding. This symbolic ritual has been passed on to us by our Spanish colonizers. Thus, we Pinoys found a perfect reason to add another little boy to the wedding party -- the Coin Bearer! The thirteen (13) coins in the arrhae represent Jesus Christ and His apostles. These coins traditionally symbolize the ability of the groom to support his wife and confirm his position as the 'breadwinner of the family' in the marriage. It also came to symbolize wealth and prosperity for the newlyweds and their future family. While the arrhae have come to symbolize essentially the material, today's couples embrace life & face the world together in a more mutually supportive way than ever before.Another fun wedding tradition I discovered was the Filipino money dance, or Sayaw ng Pera. This is where guests at the wedding pins money on the bride and groom as they dance. I'm merely curious how modern brides do this without having their thousand dollar gowns ruined. Heheh...
~taken from Weddings at Work
Funny how almost every custom seems to involve giving money to the bride and groom. Since we won't be having the traditional Chinese tea ceremony or 10-course Chinese course sit-down dinner, I guess the inkling of Chinese custom definitely welcomed at the wedding would be receiving lots of ang pau. ^_~ Heheh..
To honour Lee's Scottish name, I'd already been told by my aunt in Perth that my uncle (her partner) Malcolm could play the bagpipes for us. Hehe. Right... How's that for the reception's bridal march?
There's really a lot of customs to pick and choose from. Just have to be sure not to make it too rojak til everyone feels confused. Heheh...
Comments
I don't know how fusion my wedding will be...most probably more Chinese than French. :S
Mei | May 17, 2007 10:50 PM
mine was a full blown chinese sit-down dinner thingy! lol but we had the typical eurasian partying after the dinner! :P dancing the night away....
Yvy | May 21, 2007 3:04 PM