At 5:30 the next morning a caravan of vans carrying the groom's family arrived, out of the vans came a procession of trays bore by his relatives. Each tray was significant. According to superstition you've got to have six or nine trays, never 7 or 8 which are unlucky numbers. The trays may contain: wine, fruit, traditional cake, tea and meat, western style cake, trau cau (leaves with fruit to be offered to the ancestors), and most importantly jewelry for her dowry. Hanh received many pieces of jewelry: gold bracelets, earrings, rings, necklaces, etc. Usually one of the trays contains a pair of candles which are lit up by the fathers of the bride and groom, symbolizing the union of the two families. In this case, the fortune teller or a monk determined that it was an unlucky day based on the Chinese calendar. Since it was not a good day, the candles were given before the wedding date. It would have been considered unlucky to give them on their wedding day.

One of the trays contained the Ao Dai (traditional gown) to be worn by the bride for the ceremony that morning. This one was pink with white pocka dots. Hanh then put on the new dress, number four but who's counting. With her was a make-up assistant who's job it was to follow the bride around applying full make-up (much like a geisha), and then freshening it throughout the day as required. The make-up artist works with the videographer and photographer as part of the team.

Next came the actual wedding ceremony. Unlike our culture where a priest, minister, or rabbi oversees the actual ceremony, the proceedings are controlled entirely by the bride and groom who practice ancestor veneration. Buddhist monks do not attend weddings!

The bride says goodbye to her family by paying respects to her ancestors by bowing and praying to them in the family's spirit house. There are several styles of spirit houses. One is wooden and used to ask for luck! The other (used for the wedding ceremony) is a metallic urn commonly found on the family alter with a few photos of deceased relatives. By the way, there may or may not be ashes in the urn. In this case, Hanh's grandfather is there. Vietnamese bury their dead below ground just like we do.

The groom also bows and prays, then bowls of trau cau (leaves with fruit) are offered to the ancestors. Next earrings are then placed on the bride by her mother and mother-in-law to symbolize her virginity. Interestingly enough, the white gowns used in the proceedings don't reflect virginal status. The earrings are considered more important than the exchange of wedding bands which is a western tradition. The bride is considered a permanent member of the groom's household after this brief ceremony which took only about 30 minutes.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the trays and about half of the food were handed back to the Trang's family as a gesture of respect. Sometimes they give less. We barely started eating the spread of pastries at Hanh's mother's house when the wedding party suddenly scurried to the vans for a six hour journey to the groom's family homestead in Dalat.

Along the way, the entourage stopped at two restaurants for snacks. Upon completing the journey we visited the groom's house to pay our respects to his family. Since it wasn't a good day (as determined by the fortune teller), the bride didn't bow to the groom's family spirit house. If she did, her future would not be lucky. Normally she would have paid homage to Trang's ancestors.

That night, after settling into our various hotels, we attended the second reception sponsored by Trang's family. There we feasted once again on many exotic dishes and a second wedding cake. Amazingly enough, the entire wedding was paid for by the groom's family. The bride's mother was given a dowry of 2 million dong. In China it is the opposite, there the bride's family must give the groom's family money.