As guests arrived at the Delta Marriott in Garden Grove, they entered into a photo op with the bride and groom, Natalie and Taylor. Then off to the cocktail hour with many tasty dishes traditional to Viet Nam.
The blending of cultural tastes and customs is like a beautiful art piece of mixed mediums of expression. Taylor and Natalie used broad strokes in bringing Jewish and Vietnamese traditions to their families. With the traditional Vietnamese ceremony performed in the morning, the evening service was devoted to the Jewish aspects of love and marriage. We had the master of ceremonies help translate with this trilingual ceremony.
It was clear that the Jewish symbols were unfamiliar to most of Natalie’s side, but they all were so gracious and thankful for the explanations of the customs and the meaning of the prayers. The most interesting challenge was the breaking of the glass. In Viet Nam, it is bad luck to break something on your wedding day. I did not know that. What we did was take the more traditional explanation of the breaking of the glass, that the sound of the glass breaking, scares away evil or negativity. Instead of using a wine glass, I replaced it with a plastic cup. When crushed, it sounded just like breaking glass. Not knowing how the bride’s family would understand or if the Jewish guests might be offended, I encouraged everyone to shout Mozel Tov and when they did, the sound was deafening.
As the wedding party recessed out of the ballroom, shouts of joy surrounded them.
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Taylor and Natalie used broad strokes in bringing Jewish and Vietnamese traditions to their families was originally published on
