Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Christine Cheung, 27, of Murrysville laughs after putting on the phoenix coronet before her traditional Chinese wedding ceremony yesterday. She married Justin Ging, 30, at Mandarin Gourmet, Downtown. Her red costume has four layers. Click photo for larger image.

Garbed in flaming red robes and eye-catching headpieces, Christine Cheung and Justin Ging yesterday bowed first to the Heaven and Earth, next to their parents and then to each other, thereby marrying in a traditional Chinese ceremony.

More than 100 guests attended the wedding, held at the Mandarin Gourmet Chinese Restaurant, Downtown. The bride's mother, Rossana Cheung, of Murrysville, said it's been at least three decades since such a ceremony has been performed in Pittsburgh.

"I myself [had] never been to this kind of wedding before," she said. "These kinds of costumes you can only see in a Chinese movie or a Chinese soap opera."

Since the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Western styles have become the norm for weddings in China and Taiwan, Mrs. Cheung said. For her own marriage ceremony, she wore a white dress. Traditionally, red represents joy and love, and it was the color scheme for the clothes, invitations, programs and decorations at her daughter's wedding.

	For a multimedia presentation of the happy occasion, click on the image above.

Mrs. Cheung borrowed the one-size-fits-all wedding outfits from a friend, who had used them on the stage. The groom's robe was decorated with a dragon, and the bride's elaborate phoenix coronet framed her face. In a modern adaptation, she was not covered with an opaque red veil, which her new husband would have lifted away with a stick on their wedding night, Mrs. Cheung explained.

No formal vows or rings were exchanged. Instead, after watching the performance of a lively lion dance to bring them good luck and ward off evil spirits, the newlyweds served tea to their elders to honor them.

Their grandparents, who did not know the wedding would follow an ancient format, were delighted.

"The intent was to give them a nice, pleasant surprise," Christine Cheung, 27, said. "We thought this would be an interesting way to celebrate, something that we would be able to talk about years later."

After the ceremony, the couple changed into contemporary Chinese clothes for dinner. The bride said she dieted for a week to make sure she could get into her tight-fitting qi-pao.

"You cannot eat, you cannot drink with that kind of outfit," her mother said, laughing. "You have to hold your breath and suck in your tummy."

For the dancing, the bride changed into a Western-style gown, while the groom wore "sort of like a kung-fu outfit and tuxedo mixed together," as Mrs. Cheung put it.

The newlyweds met when they were both getting masters of business administration degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and became engaged in February.

Recently, they drove to Los Angeles where Mr. Ging, 30, will be working. On the way, they stopped in Las Vegas to get legally married in a 10-second, drive-thru ceremony.

"We figured that would be an interesting story, too," said Ms. Cheung. "I did a more traditional white dress. There was no Elvis."

According to her husband, yesterday's wedding day, though, is the one they'll mark for anniversaries.