We have known Sam ( Samantha ) all her life, before she was born.Can't believe how time has flown by and she got married over the weekend!
We looked forward to this wedding ceremony of a Chinese and Romanian Canadian couple.
Guests wrote their congratulatory messages to the bride and groom as they signed in to the ceremony.
After the guests signed in, they received small token gifts: each guest could choose a gift came in either a miniature paper bridle gown or a tuxedo box.
How cute was that!
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| Mother of the Bride accompanied by her older daughter |
The wedding was well attended since Sam's father is a senior pastor in a church in Toronto.
Both sets of parents were brimming with joy and their pride and happiness were evident for all to see!
Lots of people attended the morning wedding ceremony and the huge church was filled with guests.
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| Scripture Reading by the bride's aunt |
The church wedding ceremony was planned entirely by Sam and Mihai, two young Canadians. The wedding ceremony was short and sweet without much of the traditional rituals from either side of their cultures.
The ceremony was conducted entirely in English and Sam's aunt read a short scripture passage from the bible, followed by a message from Pastor Lim.
There was no lifting of the bride's veil, and the couple held their hands throughout the entire ceremony as they read the vows they wrote themselves.
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| Sam & Mihai signing the marriage certificate |
There was no obedience or death due us part in the wedding vows but instead there were:
Sam: " I promise I will love you even though you wake me up at 6a.m. on Saturday morning, '
Mihai " I promise I will treat you like a princess for the rest of my life." '
Sam: " I promise I will stand by you as you venture out to start your business."
Mihai: " I promise I will clean the dishes and pick up my stuff.."
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| Belinda singing at the wedding |
Belinda, Sam's second older sister, flew in from Vancouver, played and led the singing as the couple signed the marriage certificate.
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| Sam & Mihai |
At the end of the morning ceremony, there was a reception for the few hundred guests in the church gymnasium.
It was great to see some of our old friends whom we have not seen for many years such as Karim and Raymond who moved to Calgary over thirty years ago!
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| The Wedding Banquet |
About two hundred guests were invited to the evening formal reception.
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| The Banana Game |
In a Canadian wedding reception, the bride and groom are asked to kiss when guests strike their silverware on the dishes and make noises. The louder the noise is, the longer they will kiss.
At Chinese weddings, the guests would come up with some games for the new couple.
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| Who knows the other person better? |
There were a couple of games that tested the communication skills of Sam and Mihai and how well they knew each other.
In the Banana Game, Sam was blindfolded with a peeled banana in her hand. She was spun around a few times and was directed to go forward to feed the fruit to Mihai at his instructions.
A test of their communication skills.
In the Voting game, they were asked questions about certain situations between them and given choices.
Belinda and Mihai voted on the answers of what the other would respond. A test on how ell they knew each other.
Some of the answers and choices were hilarious!
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| Sam and her sisiter |
Another touching and funny moment came when the bride's sister, Belinda, gave a humorous toast, celebrated the bonds between sisters and made an analogy of sisters to panties.
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| Sisters are like panties??? |
She really got the guests roaring with laughter!
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| Sam and her father - Pastor Ko |
There were many precious moments for the parents of the bride and groom.
The bride and her father's dance.
We could see tears in Sam's eyes and the pride on her father's face.
The groom and his mother's dance.
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| The Goom's Father |
The Parents' Speeches.
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| Pastor Ko, Mrs. Ko and Grace |
The groom's speech and especially
the bride's speech in which she thanked her parents and recounted the moments how her parents helped her and others generously and selflessly brought the house down.
We could hear a pin drop.
The bride's heartfelt gratitude for her parents' loving upbringing and their support for an expensive university education brought tears to many of us.
Sam was all choked up and so was I and many others.
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| Crazy picture booth at the wedding banquet |
After all the speeches and thank you, there were dancing, crazy picture booth where guests could put on some masks, hats etc to have some fun with friends and the new couple in front of the camera.
It was quite a celebration of Sam and her beloved new husband, Mihai.
Everyone had a marvelous time! But no one was happier and prouder than the parents of the new couple!
May God bless Sam and Mihai's new life together!
R.T.
Toronto, Ontario
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