Chinese Weddings
Congrats to Yue and Sun on their marriage! Dude, what an event. It was definitely a different experience than America. Not to say it was bad because it wasn’t at all, just different. Here were some clear differences I experienced between a Chinese wedding and an American wedding.
Things are last minute…BUT it’s all good. My friend might even be a little more extreme for China standards, because as a bride to be, she started planning her wedding one whole month in advance. ONE month. Compared to the typical year of planning in America, mad props goes to her for pulling it off.
Privacy of the bride before the wedding is non-existent. As Isaiah and I were snapping some photos of the bride getting ready, anyone and everyone came in at least once just to check out what was going on. At times there were 10+ heads up in the room. BUT, again, it’s all good.
It was a nice, small, not-so-quiet ceremony. I can’t say this one is true for all weddings in China, since locations can vary. This ceremony was in an office building, and the room was packed. Also, the hootin’ and hollerin’ that’s usually saved for the end in America starts right at the beginning in Chiners as the bride walked in.
The wedding variety show. Immediately after they are married, the bride and groom were pushed aside, and it was time for testimonies. Anyone from the audience could come up and give a little speech about the couple. Some groups sang and some groups presented gifts. Mind you that it was all in the same room. I heard at some weddings they can go more than an hour…eek.
The all-in-one package. The first thing I noticed in the room they held the wedding was the wedding cake. I didn’t realize that the cake cutting, bouquet toss, and snacks were all done in the same room right after the ceremony. This one really bothered me though because we had all these desserts (i.e. brownies, cookies, banana bread) in another room so that after the ceremony people would migrate over that way. Instead, people would get a plate or bag, and pile on as much as they could and take it in to the ceremony so that they had a snack while they watched. By the end of the ceremony, there was nothing left to my dismay. Not even ONE cookie left. Bunch of hoarders…
Overall though, it was still nice. Actually, the ceremony was pretty care-free, and everyone was just having a lot of fun celebrating their loved ones getting married, and I guess that’s all that you can really ask for in a wedding. Congrats to the lovely couple once again.
