The night before the Big Day was probably the most stressful, not because we were about to get married but because my house was an absolute mess! Craig and I had spent so much time working and organising the wedding that the few bits and pieces I needed to do never ended up getting done. Luckily, my family & friends came to the rescue! At the time, my immediate family (mum, dad, my 3 sisters & baby brother, Aidan) and Hayley and her son Noah, were staying with us. Everyone was quick to pitch in!
Early that morning, my mum and dad attacked the bushes that were trying to overgrow the house. Meanwhile, the kids and teenagers were being roused out of their beds and prodded into having breakfast. That night, Craig's family would be meeting mine for the first time. So Mum and I put together a menu that wasn't too difficult to cook, but still satisfy a lot of hungry tummies. The hardest part was finding room in my tiny fridge for all the groceries. Even our extra bar fridge wasn't much help, as it was being stocked with beer & wine. Mum and her oldest sister, my Aunt Ah Yee, did a fair bit of the chopping and food preparation. Hayley and my sisters were busy creating a delicious fruit punch while I did a lot of running around, making sure I'd covered all the bits & pieces that needed to be done.
I was especially nervous about my family meeting Craig's family. My family are from up north in Cairns, while Craig's were from down south in Coffs Harbour. This hadn't provided many opportunities for meet ups but with everyone gathering for the wedding, they would finally have the opportunity. I wondered what Craig's Aussie atomic family would think of my big Chinese-Irish one! Despite the nerves, I was really excited about the whole thing and looked forward to seeing everyone under the one roof.
To true Aussie hospitality, Craig and I visited Bunnings for some firewood. Our house had a brick BBQ and for the first time, we were going to fire it up! It took a while to get the fire going as we were both new to the whole thing. Mum was especially handy here as she helped Craig set up the grill, which soon provided a steady fire. Meanwhile, my sisters helped with the last minute cleaning and decorating.
It wasn't long before the Thear Family arrived. This consisted of Craig's Mum and Dad (Olga and Graham) and his older brother, Brett. We were also joined by Craig's sister, Kali and her partner Paul and 3 kids. My good friend, Meg also joined us, as that same night, we would also have a quick wedding rehearsal. Soon we were all mingling and chatting, the men talking sports while the women talked Wedding preparations. It didn't take long for the kids to start running around and entertaining themselves. In other words, I worried over nothing! Everyone got on like a house on fire.
After having a bit of tucker and drinks, we dug into the lovely chocolate cake Meg had brought over. We also had a very casual wedding rehearsal but at least everyone had a vague idea of what would be happening the next day! We also caught Craig's family up on what had taken place in Cairns and showed them the video clips that my sister Sharlene had made (to see these, visit my earlier blogs). But we weren't done with the Chinese traditions just yet!
Mum, Hayley and the kids headed straight for our bedroom. Part of the marriage ceremony involves 'installing the bridal bed' with new, clean sheets, preferably in the colours of auspicious red. Auspicious Chinese characters meaning 'Happiness' were also used to decorate the walls, light and door of my room. Hayley also brought these lovely Red Bridal Chinese slippers from Hong Kong which were so cute!
My Mum's sister-in-law is also a very skilled seamstress, and she hand-made this 'Happiness' bed cover for us. It's really intricate and every time I look at it, I'm just reminded of the kindness of my family and friends, and all they've done for us!
After the bridal bed was officially installed, they rounded up the children of the house to invite them to jump on our bed! The reason for doing this is to promote the couple's fertility and it's a very typical Chinese tradition. When my cousin, Ving Ving, got married, they got my sisters to jump on his bed and they actually ended up breaking it! So maybe that means he'll have loads of children! To entire the children onto the bed, lollies were thrown onto the bed and basically, the children had a fight for the lollies in amongst all the encouraged jumping. The best part was, Craig's nephew (Mitchell) and niece (Chelsea) took part in this so they got to have a taste of our crazy Chinese ways, hehe.
With the bed jumping taken care of, Craig was then sent packing with his family. They were staying at a motel and since it wasn't proper for Craig to sleep with the bride before the wedding, he had to go. The funny thing was, he was so happily drunk, I had to pack his overnight bag for him. Oh well. At least he wasn't sweating and having second thoughts! This left me to sleep in my bridal bed alone. Since this isn't awfully auspicious (this is somewhat taboo and believed to lead to her bad health), my little brother Aidan joined me to counter it with more hopes of children! If you haven't guessed yet, my Mum loves babies and is very keen to have some grandchildren. So we'll leave you here. It's just a few hours till the Big Day and somehow, I'll try and get some sleep!
Cheers,
Demi.
