Washington CYC Chinese Lion Dance Troupe

My husband is the world’s biggest egg (white on the outside, yellow on the inside). When we got engaged, I immediately dreamt of the classic American wedding — elopement in Vegas by Elvis. However, he sided with my parents, and lobbied for a «real» wedding, flowers, reception, and the whole nine yards. As I love him dearly, and I love my parents, and even love my in-​laws, I caved — with the understanding that it would be a small and simple wedding.
In many ways, it was small (only 65 guests) and simple, however, as the wedding planning got underway, the wedding became more and more Chinese. Not because of me, or my parents (well, some of it was my parents)…but of my husband’s doing. Eh, I love him, and it made my parents happy (although, I’m convinced that his parents think that I’m a crazy über-​controlling fiancée/​bride/​wife who is set to turn their only son Chinese).
So, I suppose that I shouldn’t have been surprised that my husband wanted lion dancers at the wedding. For those of you unfamiliar with Chinese culture, the lion dance (
) is usually performed by a pair of acrobats in a lion costume during celebrations. Lots of drum beating and cymbals clashing are involved.
Personally, I wasn’t 100% sold on the idea, however, knowing my husband’s desperate love of dragons and lion dancing — and his plea that it would be a great surprise for my parents and all of our guests, I caved and found CYC. They were AWESOME!!!
The staff at CYC was great about communication and asking what we were looking for and offering their opinion what would work best for us. They were in constant contact with me — including the final few days when I was on the verge of strangling many of my vendors (but not CYC).
The day of my wedding, it rained. Of course. I worried about the lions and drums getting wet (as both are super expensive, and can’t get wet), however, the staff was great about helping me figure out contingency plans. When the people I had been working with at National Harbor, forgot to tell their security force that we had a permit for the lion dancing — the CYC staff quickly came up with solutions so that my guests would still get to enjoy the performance.
I am still amazed that they didn’t kill me — as I think between the rain and the park police, they were forced to change locations three or four times. However, they remained calm (even when I became a screaming shrew to the National Harbor people) and dealt with the situation, and basically kept me from getting thrown in jail for pushing the security people into the water. Heh.
So not only did CYC make my wedding unique (which was important to my husband), but also they kept me from being thrown in jail. Which would have definitely made my wedding memorable, but not in the way my family would have intended it to be. Heh.