The Vietnamese ceremony

I'm still a bit hazy on the Vietnamese ceremony that we're having the morning of the wedding. I know that B's family comes to my parent's place to basically ask to take me away. :) They come bearing gifts and then we pray to our ancestors. My family presents me with jewelry (fun!). There's also eating involved and within an hour or so it'll all be done.

And I'll be wearing this (ignore the cheesy smile):


















We had the dress (called 'ao dai' in Vietnamese) and pants made with some silk that my mom had. It's not finished in the photo -- in fact, there are probably about 200 pins holding it together here. But the dressmaker is incredible and has managed to accentuate my good parts and hide my bad parts while still making it relatively comfortable to wear.

I'm borrowing the overcoat from a family friend. Personally I don't want to wear the overcoat at all. And that head dress (called 'khan dong') is not my favorite, but it's traditional and pulls the whole outfit together. In any case, the head piece is too big for my head, so we'll have to figure out how to keep it in place without messing up my hair. I also need to come up with a hairstyle that will work for both this outfit as well as my western one.

While planning 2 ceremonies has been a pain, I like the idea of incorporating my heritage into the day's festivities.