Tonight, we welcomed our friends and family to a welcome and rehearsal dinner to kick off our wedding celebration. I was insistent that the food be Vietnamese and found a place within 30-minute driving distance that was a sister restaurant of a well-known restaurant in the Westminster area. It was authentic Vietnamese flavors with a modern take, and lots of fresh flavors and ingredients. I wanted everyone to know why we chose Vietnamese food, why I wore an ao dai, and a little more about our thoughts about my heritage, so I gave this short speech toward the end of dinner to honor my mom and her heritage:

Hi everyone – Are you all enjoying the food? Thanks so much for traveling from all over the world to be here with us this long weekend to celebrate our wedding. It really does mean so much to us, and we’re overwhelmed with gratitude knowing that all of you spent the time, money, and energy to be here these couple of days. Every time an RSVP “yes” came in, we were more and more overwhelmed.

We hope you’re enjoying the food. I’m not sure how much you guys know about the LA and Orange County area, but the OC actually has the largest concentration of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam, and being half Vietnamese (or a quarter after taking a 23AndMe genetics test and realizing my mom is half Chinese, half Vietnamese), I wanted to honor my heritage and that of my mother’s tonight. My mom has no idea what I’m about to say right now, so she’s probably getting a little worried, but what I want to say is that I’d like to use this dinner celebration to honor her, not just with the food on the table tonight and her here in the room, but also with my traditional Vietnamese dress, which is called an ao dai. My mother left a war-torn country in the early 70s and all her family to marry my dad and start a brand new life here in the U.S. Unlike other immigrants, she had no way to get all her family over here. In fact, she never got to see any of them again until 2008, when we went back to Vietnam to see them. She came here without any other family, was able to get the equivalent of a high school degree, and then an office job that helped to support my brother and me and put me through private college. She dealt with extended family, who frankly, did not feel that happy about accepting a woman of Vietnamese descent into their Chinese family. My mother’s strength and perseverance inspire me, and I’d like to let her know today, in front of all our family and friends, that I love her dearly, respect the culture she has brought into my life, and hope to mirror her hard work, perseverance, and determination in my own life and give that type of hope to our future children. Love you, Mommy… and Daddy, love you, too. 🙂 (Thanks for bringing mom over and marrying her.)

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Needless to say, she was completely embarrassed and caught off guard when she realized that the speech was about her. She turned away from me and started looking down and towards the opposite end of the room. She thanked me later, but I think she was still digesting everything she heard and trying to understand what had happened and why.