Hong Kong - Wedding Central, Part II and a Half

"Let's Enjoy Gel Magic" Happy Wedding stickies at Jusco - Hong Kong's version of Target. I found this little wedding nugget in the HK$10 (US$1.40) section. What a deal! I'm particularly found of the candle on the cake. Is this a fluke or some other weird tradition I need to investigate?

OK, I had along discussion today with a Hong Kong woman about her wedding and got some interesting scoop.

The men do not carry bouquets. The groom actually goes and gets the bride to take her to marry him. I know Indians do this too (on horseback, no less!). The guys brings the woman her bouquet, which is sort of sweet. He is sort of in charge of it throughout the ceremony, which is why the guy is holding it in the photo I took of the couple in the car. So, that mystery is cleared up.

Now get this....most brides don't buy their wedding day garb, they rent it! One of my agent's told me this interesting little factoid. Only the very rich buy their gowns. Most people go to a store and pay around HK$5000, or US$700 to rent up to 6 ensembles. These 6 outfits can be anything from the Western style white wedding gown and traditional red Chinese dress to the groom's tuxedo, to bridesmaid dresses to Mother of the Bride dresses. How strange is that? I showed my agent the freaky green and black dress from my shopping excursion on Sunday and she explained that it wasn't a bridesmaid's dress, but one of many dresses that the bride could change into during the reception! Apparently, brides change gowns a few times during the course of the evening.

There is yet another wedding in my hotel tonight (it's Tuesday here now). My camera was up in my room and I was just too exhausted to go get it and take pictures (how sad is that?). The party had already started, so I would have had to totally crash the wedding. Hmmmm. On second thought, maybe it's not too late. Wedding crashing - that would be a new experience! Or maybe not. I'm a huge believer in karma. What goes around comes around, right? I seriously don't need any Chinese tourists crashing the day of The Big Show.

I'm off to bed now. I have an early flight to Xiamen (pronounced SHA-MEN), China, in the morning. More updates later. Keep the comment love coming. I've only been gone a week and I'm starting to feel lonely over here.....