Bridal Life in China

This of course it very important for every bride, but in China, there is at least one extra layer to the Bridezilla business, mainly: the wedding pictures! Whilst in Europe it's considered bad luck if the husband sees the bridal dress before the wedding, in China all the wedding pictures are taken around 6 months in advance of the wedding (and are then put on the wedding invitations). I have wondered if there are ever couples that split up after the pictures but before the wedding and what happens to the pictures then. (I haven't found out yet, but I guess it will be good business for the photographer.)

My Chinese colleagues tell me that the pictures are alomst more improtant than the wedding, because you give them to your family and hang them up in your house (a very common idea is to have one picture blown up into a canvas and put on the wall, our neighbours have one).

The pictures are usually taken wearing the clothes provided by the photographer (so the groom doesn't actually see the wedding dress) and then you go out to the beautiful sights and get them taken. Hence, we have seen brides and grooms pretty much everywhere we have been that is worth taken a picture of: Suzhou, Forbidden City, Dalian waterfront and my personal favourite:at the Snow Festival in Harbin (see living proof below). My new hobby has become to take pictures of the brides (grooms are just not that interesting). Usually I would feel very bad doing this, but in China it's totally ok (especially considering the fact that pictures of us probably feature in dozens of Chinese households by now). Therefore, my aim is to collect hundreds of pictures over the next three years, and my absolute favourite of my so far ten pictures is the bride in the snow.

This poor girl was wearing a skinny dress and nothing but some lace over her arms and it was about -17 degrees. I was worried my fingers would fall off every time I quickly took a picture, but this girl was either already frozen or from Siberia!

So, over the next months, I may post some curious bridal pictures here. Of course, the question is whether Mark and I will get the cheesy photoshoot.... Well, you'll just have to wait and see!