Is the bride and groom standing on a moving walkway???

I have never been so entertained in my life at a wedding banquet. I threw down a typical 200,000 dong (that’s ~$12.50) as a gift to the newlyweds. There’s no such thing a Target store gift registry. Viets don’t want blenders and toaster, we want cold cash.

This Viet wedding was brought to me by my co-worker at Pasteur Institute. Sitting down in a circle of Pasteur doctors, the lights suddenly dimmed. Then a ballerina and ballerino (does that exist?) waltzed onto the red carpet under a spotlight, displaying to me an unexpected magical dance. Then three more dancing couples drew spotlights. I felt like I was at the Chanhassen dinner theater with a six course meal and entertainment at hand.

Then kaboom, confetti falls and explosion of firecrackers pounce my eardrum. Then imagine the song, “Chariots of Fire” starts to play and slowly appears the stoic bride and groom standing on a podium that begins to inch forward to the front of the restaurant. Behind them trail the four dancing couples. It’s unbelievable to me that they don’t even need to walk and thus there is no fear of a ridiculous blooper trip. Brilliant!

They then sit down on King and Queen like chairs with their parents to sides on similar majestic chairs. I wanted to stand up and give them a tremendous round of applause, but I had no one to egg me on. Instead I settled on feasting on food and jello for dessert.