Chapter 12. Part 2. KTV – Wedding Karaoke Party

My Big Fat Guangdong Wedding

Chapter 12.  Double Happiness needs a Double Party.

Part 2.  KTV – Wedding Karaoke Party

 

With a number of friends, we hauled the remaining alcohol down to someone’s car to ship back to my house in the village.  My wife and her family needed to buy something (Advice – always hold your wedding next to a couple of super-centers ), so I ended up carrying stuff back to the hotel with some friends before heading over to KTV. (Note to those who haven’t spent time in China – KTV is what karaoke places are called.  Nearly all offer private rooms so groups can have their own parties.  I’ve seen very few that even have a public bar and karaoke area.)

I really have to wonder what the hotel clerks thought.  They saw me come in and out with my bride several times.  Then in and out with one or both Cantonese Twins, with and without my bride.  Now I was leading in 3 guys and a different girl in (the Twins had gone ahead to KTV – only a 2-3 minute walk from the hotel).  Ah well, I might as well give people things to speculate about. 

Finally, I arrived at KTV (still covered in shiny foil confetti) and my lovely wife and our darling daughter arrived a few minutes later.  The room could handle 50+, but we only ended up with about 30.  As usual, Twin #1, ScooterGirl, had maxed out the volume of both the music and the microphones.  I’d figured out the song selection controls at this KTV during my birthday party well enough to find English language songs by title, but am still working on the other items.

I decided to test the range of Chinese hearing during the chorus to Yesterday Once More by pushing my voice up past Helium-sucking Alvin and the Chipmonks style into the edge of the range of “Only audible to dogs.”  I believe I was successful in damaging a few people’s ears.   A couple of my former coworkers from the Translation Center did pretty well in duets with me on some other songs in English.

 

 

Happily, there was some slow dance music, so I did get to dance with my bride a little.

 

 

Then some thoughtful person loaded up some disco music.  I sat down and was quite . . . pleased to see how amazingly well a number of my dearest female friends could dance.     

 

 

Overall, I think everyone had a good time.

 

 

Finally, the party wound down.  I left the Twins and a couple of others still singing (the room was reserved until 7) and went out to dinner with my wife, daughter, and the in-laws before we all dragged ourselves back to the hotel.  Our room had little bits of metal foil confetti everywhere from things brought back from the lunch and other pieces falling off of our hair and clothing.

Just as we were laying down for the night, my darling bride remarked “We survived it!”  I think she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

The honeymoon will be some time this summer.  We need a few months of rest to recover from the wedding.

 

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