Wedding Blog

Previously in the Toucan Re-cap Series…
Oh Happy Day: Getting Ready

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When I last left you, I was patiently waiting for my groom to arrive. In Chinese culture, it is customary for the groom to pick up his bride from her parents’ house. Unfortunately for the groom, before he can get to the bride, he must make it past the bridesmaids!

Looks like the groom, and his band of merry men have just arrived!


It was unseasonably hot for an early June day (93 degrees!), so the girls were gracious enough to give Mr. Toucan and the guys water to drink while they prepared the hurdles that Mr. Toucan was to face before entering the door to my parents home.

The girls are ready - let the door games begin!

Don’t they look gorgeous?

Task #1 for Mr. Toucan: Eat this!

picture by my cousin, Kevin

Mr. Toucan’s first task was to “taste the ups and downs of marriage.” The 4 clear cups represent the moments of marriage that are sweet (jelly), sour (lemon juice), spicy (hot sauce), and bitter (coffee grinds).

Since none of my bridesmaids have ever been a part of the door game festivities, my cousin helped them out. Here she’s feeding Mr. Toucan the bitter.
Mr. Toucan was REALLY thankful that it wasn’t vinegar. He despises it, and told me later that it probably would have made him throw up! Phew… Task 1 completed without too much commotion. Next task, please.

Task #2: Let’s hear your Chinese!
My cousin had my sister phonetically write out a few phrases in Chinese. Here, my cousin is handing Mr. Toucan the paper, and telling him to read it.
As you can tell, Mr. Toucan wasn’t faring so well…He had no idea what he was reading, and I almost forgot! He had a pretty big audience!

(oh, yes, THIS would be the reason why so many family members came to my parents’ house! There’s a show going on!)

After reading the phrases on the sheet, Mr. Toucan also learned what he had said (well, or at least attempted to say). Some of the phrases included:

“Wife, you are so pretty.”
“Wife, you are the best.”

and finally, my personal favorite,

“Wife, you are always right.”

And after saying that, Task #2, was complete. The next tasks were actually not for Mr. Toucan, but for instead, for the other guys.

Task #3 (for the best man): Toast the Groom

They’re such good sports. To this day, none us know what was actually in those cups. Apparently, my cousin had given one of my male cousins 2 cups. Her directions to him, “Raid the fridge, and put whatever you want in them.” And that, is what Mr. Toucan and his Best Man drank. Yum.

Task #4: Show us your strength!
Traditionally, this is for the groom to do, but I told the girls since it was so hot, I didn’t want Mr. Toucan to stink. So, they made the groomsmen do it instead…
Push-ups! Remember that picture I showed you before with all of my relatives watching? Guess who made sure they all did their push ups in unison? Yup, all of the on-lookers were counting them off!

Task #5: Dance, Monkey, Dance!
The groomsmen also got to show us their moves…
The girls joined in too…
The interesting thing about doing them doing the Macarena - there was NO MUSIC! hahaha, I think they were all trying to hum together so they could all be on the same part!

Task #6: Kiss the girls!
I actually think that this task was for the flower girls. I found out later that they had to be bribed with candy to participate.

Here are all my flower girls lined up, and ready for kisses from Mr. T:

Yep. 6 flower girls! Aren’t they so cute though?

They got the giggles when Mr. Toucan kissed them. I love how one girl cover her eyes!

Everyone had been such good sports with all the tasks, and it was getting REALLY hot standing in the sun. But, there was just one more task…

Task#7: Pay up!
This is the one task that is always the same for every single groom that does Chinese Door Games. Money. Supposedly, the purpose of this task is for the groom to show that he is wealthy enough to care for his bride.

The girls asking for money… “How much is Miss Toucan worth?”

Mr. Toucan opens his wallet… “How much you got in there?”
I won’t tell you how much he ended up paying the girls. Though apparently it wasn’t enough, and there was some agreement made, and there are some IOUs in order - payable over a lifetime to yours truly.

Stay tuned! Mr. Toucan gets in the house - hopefully what’s inside was worth completing all of these tasks!

*Unless otherwise stated, please credit all photos to Robert Mirani Photography.