There is a surprisingly large park squeezed inbetween a couple of the colleges north of my campus. Mostly on Sundays you will see a line of black fancy cars with their hoods decorated with flowers, teddy bears and dolls parked at the entrance to this park (or any other park). The Sunday of the May 1st holday, which is considered lucky, I walked thru the park where at least 30 weddings were taking place. They like to have their ceremonies on days that have been predicted as lucky for the couple (not any date that has a 4) in it. Anyway, most of brides and grooms were in the picture taking mode. I saw 6 wedding couples in paddle boats, and many more being posed in different locations. Most of the wedding guests were in jeans. They are definitely not boring stuffy affairs.
My students said that most brides rent their wedding dresses. They also said that there were 1 or 2 brides maids and 1 groomsman but I saw no evidence of the typically unflattering matching bridesmaids dresses strolling around the park (lucky them). Some of their “wedding day” photos are taken months before the wedding. Some of the pre-wedding photos will even have the bride and groom in romantic costumes, which might be displayed on a large poster on the day of the wedding. I have noticed many wedding processions going down the streets with a van in front with the back doors open taking a video of the procession and traffic. I was taking lots of pictures of as many couples as I could as I walked thru the park and weirdly at the same time, my picture was being taken by their photographer.
The casually dressed wedding guests are generally expected to give the bride and groom a red envelope containing at least 600 or 800 Yuan. I am not sure about the ceremony part of the day but one of the Chinese men at the last English corner said that today’s Chinese weddings were more like a theater production with all the videos and businesses involved. Maybe I will get to go to one and see the whole thing and not just the photo taking part.
If you are still interested in MODERN Chinese Weddings – I found this on the internet and it explains things way better than I did.
http://www.gluckman.com/ChinaWed2004.html
If you are interested in traditional Chinese Weddings check this web site out http://www.chcp.org/wedding.html
