A Wedding in Vietnam

Abby Ripoli 

Having been in Vietnam for two months already, I am finding new experiences around every corner. This past weekend however, I had a particularly unique experience, a Vietnamese wedding.

Weddings in Vietnam are a lot more similar to American weddings than I had expected. For example, the bride wears a white wedding dress, the same style as we find in the U.S. Most interesting of all was that the wedding was three days long, and each day the bride wore a different dress. The first part of the wedding was on Friday night, which seemed to be some kind of a preview night for the couple. The whole family came to see the couples wedding pictures, which were surprisingly already taken. I drank tea and ate cookies and candy, while all the adults chatted about the couple, speaking way too fast for me to understand. 

The following Saturday festivities were the equivalent to our post ceremony reception in the U.S. There was a big brunch with around 500 people. Everyone sat at nicely decorated, the American equivalent of “white table cloth dining,” and served the Vietnamese version of an elegant platter. From what I was able to observe, the purpose of this day was simply to take pictures with the bride and groom. They were busy posing for photographers the entire afternoon, while the rest of us dined. 

Sunday, the final and most important day of the wedding, we all dressed up in our au dais (the traditional Vietnamese dress) for the official marriage of the couple. Starting at 8 am, we had an early morning of hair, makeup, and photo-taking. The whole family piled into the shared-family cars and headed to the family of the bride’s house. Here we ate cookies, drank tea, and took more pictures. After about an hour of sitting, we piled back into the vans and headed over to the Westlake district, to the family of the  groom’s home. This stop was a little more eventful as we were able to see the room in which the bride and groom would be living, which of course led to more picture-taking. This was also where the bride and groom said they’re prayers to their ancestors, asking for blessing upon their marriage. After this part of the ceremony was over, we walked to a nearby restaurant where the couple was married. 

In contrast to the U.S., the marriage was not performed by a clergy official, but just a guy with a microphone. The couple went on stage to be married along with both the parents of the bride and the groom. The funniest part about this ceremony, was that all the guests were being served lunch while the couple was getting married. Our focus was on which foods to try rather than the actual purpose of us coming. However, no one seemed to mind. This is just another example of some of the cultural differences I’ve noticed here and come to appreciate. Even when it comes to weddings, there is more than one right way to do things.