Wedding--the Guests

By now you must be tired of reading about the wedding, now almost a week old. But I thought I would add one more post to say something about the guests. As I wrote earlier, even before the wedding began a series of seats had been placed adjacent to the red carpet for the kids to occupy, giving them unobstructed views; everyone else crowded in behind, catching as much of the action as they could.  As the photo shows, quite a few kids attended, but perhaps none so cute and excited as Chen Yue, a niece, I guess you could say, of Xian Na, and her little friend, both of whom accompanied us on a walk up the nearby hill where they collected some flowers for the bride. During the ceremony, too, Chen Yue stayed close to the action, and enjoyed checking out the digital photos I was trying to take of the ceremony. But she was far from the youngest to attend, as several babies arrived, saddled onto their mothers' backs in a wrapped, warm basket.

At the opposite end of the age spectrum were some older locals who arrived to attend yet another in what must have been a lifetime of village weddings.

Of course, there were visitors in attendance, too.  Several of Xian Na's classmates from Chongqing Technical University (who also were once students of Andrew's at the University) came and helped, and Aaron, the master of ceremonies, had long been a friend and colleague of Andrew's at Chongqing Technical University.

And then too, there were the parents, who here posed with the bride and groom, nicely illustrating how the wedding brought together two families. Next to me is Tang Xiao Min, Xian Na's mother, and next to Jill is Xian Na's father, Xian Si Zhong.

OK, I'll give it a rest. The wedding was a wonderful time, but in my next post I'll move on to tell you how we spent a few days relaxing around Guilin in southern China.