Across the Pacific

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year.

I spent New Years up in Calgary, at the wedding of my friends Ryan and Kathy. It was a pleasure to see those two crazy kids getting married. I haven't seen many other couples I would consider more right for each other.

Of course, time in Calgary meant learning more about those to the North. I was the only American there, a fact that came up at the reception and led to a fairly verbal response (a roar? murmuring? muttering? I'm not sure what to call it, but it was loud). Roar aside, the families and the guests were exceptionally friendly and by the end I hated to leave.

The wedding also had something I'd never seen before. Apparently, it is tradition that at the reception, when one guest starting ringing their glass (with silverware, I suppose), the rest join in, and when the sound becomes loud enough the bride and groom kiss. I'd never seen this before and from looking it up on the Internet, I think it's something that is mostly true north of the border. At this reception, instead of the ringing of glasses, Ryan and Kathy wrote questions about themselves. Guests could come up to the MC's lectern, read out a question, and if the guest or anyone at their table could answer it, R&K kissed. It quickly dissolved into if anyone in the room could answer it, and then went further into no one answering and them just kissing (at their own wedding, disgusting, I know).

Still, my question is, has anyone seen this in America? On the websites that mentioned this, there were some Americans who gave their views on the tradition, but they were all from very close to the border. The rest of the respondents were Canadian. So, anyone? I'm curious.