Weddings, twice over

Shingleton describes the big fat Vietnamese wedding as two events in one day: a small, elaborate traditional ceremony at the homes of the bride and groom in the morning, followed by a reception for 500 guests or more in the evening. The morning rite is treated as a quiet revival of older customs; the evening is pitched as something closer to performance, loud and semi-Western in character.

The companion post on receptions turns to the aesthetics of that evening event — makeup, dress, and what the author calls the "kitsch" of reception venues — alongside notes on how guests behave once the formal part of the day has given way to the party.

Vietnamese weddings are often described as a two-part affair, with a quiet morning ceremony tucked inside family homes followed by a much louder evening reception that fills streets and restaurants with music, photography crews, and elaborate floral arches. Cameron Shingleton's running series treats both halves as worth observing on their own terms, paying attention to the ritual logic of the daytime gathering before turning to the spectacle of the night.</item>

Beyond the celebrations themselves, the series also looks at the everyday workings of bureaucracy and policing that shape expatriate life. Filing paperwork, navigating local offices, and learning how officials interpret shifting rules become a parallel subject, observed with the same patience applied to wedding customs. The intent is to record texture rather than scandal, and to note how institutions meet individuals in ordinary moments.</item>

Read together, the instalments read less like a travelogue and more like a slow journal of cultural attention. Each entry is filed under a specific date, giving the collection a quiet rhythm of its own and inviting readers to follow observations as they accumulate across seasons, ceremonies, and the small administrative encounters that punctuate daily life in Vietnam.</item>