There are many things about French culture that I am excited to experience and embrace. After this weekend, I'm afraid French weddings are not at the top of the list. In general, I like a good wedding. You get to get all dressed up, see people you don't see very often, and then there's the eating, drinking, and dancing. So while this wedding, and I'm told weddings here in general, included these things, it wasn't quite the same.
The ceremony here is always done in front of an official at the town hall, not in a church. So the ceremony we went to that afternoon was more of a little celebration that everyone could go to, and it included their Christian beliefs (i.e. a lot of hymn singing and prayers). Afterwards, there was a cocktail party with drinks and hors-d'œuvres in the courtyard. That was nice, although kinda long, so we took a break and wandered around the little town.
Eventually the reception started around 7pm, and we found our table. Paul and I were with his parents at the "Brudges" table with 6 others (all the tables were cities they'd been to together). And let me tell ya, these tables were fancy. I had four different glasses, three forks and knives, and a big spoon. Our first course was scallops and a white wine. So good. Then, the games started. Or maybe they started before, I'm not sure since they went on all night and there were too many to count. They ranged from ones where teams had to answer questions about France the Korea, (the bride was Korean), they had guys read Korean and she had to try and translate what they were saying, there was a competition where they had to get items from everyone sitting, (like a tie, an earring, a watch, etc.), and then a narrated slide show...I could go on.
In the middle of that we had a very nice main course, roast beef with scalloped potatoes and vegetables. And more wine. :) We made it to dessert around midnight, and had a champagne toast soon after. By that time, we were ready to fall asleep at the table, so we booked it out of there and hit the road. All in all, it was fun to experience once, but I'm getting too old to party like that all the time.
The ceremony here is always done in front of an official at the town hall, not in a church. So the ceremony we went to that afternoon was more of a little celebration that everyone could go to, and it included their Christian beliefs (i.e. a lot of hymn singing and prayers). Afterwards, there was a cocktail party with drinks and hors-d'œuvres in the courtyard. That was nice, although kinda long, so we took a break and wandered around the little town.
Eventually the reception started around 7pm, and we found our table. Paul and I were with his parents at the "Brudges" table with 6 others (all the tables were cities they'd been to together). And let me tell ya, these tables were fancy. I had four different glasses, three forks and knives, and a big spoon. Our first course was scallops and a white wine. So good. Then, the games started. Or maybe they started before, I'm not sure since they went on all night and there were too many to count. They ranged from ones where teams had to answer questions about France the Korea, (the bride was Korean), they had guys read Korean and she had to try and translate what they were saying, there was a competition where they had to get items from everyone sitting, (like a tie, an earring, a watch, etc.), and then a narrated slide show...I could go on.
In the middle of that we had a very nice main course, roast beef with scalloped potatoes and vegetables. And more wine. :) We made it to dessert around midnight, and had a champagne toast soon after. By that time, we were ready to fall asleep at the table, so we booked it out of there and hit the road. All in all, it was fun to experience once, but I'm getting too old to party like that all the time.
Too old !? But the dinner looked worth it.
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