A Chinese Wedding

Weddings in China are a little bit different...

Different traditions, food and ceremony.

Our chinese friends Eric and Sophia were nice enough to take us to a traditional chinese wedding.

They put us up in a nice hotel for the night because the activities start at 8 am!

Most of the time we didn't understand what they were doing and why but it was really cool to see the traditions they have. 

You gotta love that smile...he is definitely in love with wife. This is the look he gave her when he saw her walk down the isle:)

The first thing that happens in a chinese wedding is the groom comes to the brides home to get her...

 (or in this case her hotel room, her hometown is too far away)

The single friends of the bride are waiting at the door to let him in...They won't let him in unless he gives them enough money though! That part was my favorite of the whole day. 

The girls just kept saying nope that's not enough, we need more to let you in! 

and let me tell you...they raked in the dough!

Once they let him in the room they wouldn't let him in her room until he sang her a song...the funniest thing is they kept saying he needed to sing an english song so your foreign friends could understand! 

He tried but didn't succeed, instead he sang a chinese song and it was beautiful:)

Then they made him and his best man do a river dance! Hilarious!

and I'm not quite sure why they did this but it was still funny! 

Thats the groom putting lipstick on the best man!

Another tradition they have is they hide the brides shoes...the groom can't take her to the wedding without the wedding shoes so he has to search the whole room to find them. Then he will put them on her feet:)

Next they make promises to the brides parents and the grooms parents...that part was really sweet and very emotional. I couldn't understand a word yet I still cried.

oh and randomly through out the day someone from the wedding party would go set off hundreds of firecrackers! The chinese sure love their fireworks.

Wedding favor full of candy:)

Okay now the ceremony...this part was very interesting. It is kind of western style in the way that they have an isle and the father of the bride walks her down and gives her to the groom but....

They take it to another level. It's almost like a big sports event! They have an announcer and they dim the lights when the bride comes out. They play loud music and it isn't very spiritual. 

Even though it was loud and a little crazy I could still feel the love these two had for each other. 

Then immediately after the ceremony her friends come up and they throw the bouquet! 

This experience was definitely a different one. 

I'm so glad we got to see a chinese wedding...it was really fun to meet their families and to see the love they all have for each other!

It was fun to take pictures as well... I just have my old camera with me so the quality of the photos aren't the best but it was great to be lookin through that lens again capturing moments of love and laughter!

xoxo

-bb