Thanks for the photo. Oh, it just occured to me - another cool thing about that wedding is that neither of them would have ANY excuse to forget the anniversary 
Now, that was sound advice.
Hola!
I got married in China to a Chinese woman. I am a teacher of English in China, and last year (2001-2002) I worked in a medium sized city where I was the only foreigner. All Chinese (I am blond, about 5’10" and weigh about 270 lbs) people.
I met my wife there (another story). We went to the courthouse so to say and signed the papers to make us legal, then we planned the wedding celebration. The wedding celebration takes place at a fancy hotel (if you got money) where the bride and the groom stand in front and receives money from family and friends. There is a band there playing music. Then we all go inside together, stand at a podium, and then people come up and say wonderful things about us and all that.
We had 300 people to this thing, including my parents from the United States. We had our story printed in three newspapers. It was’nt religious at all, wasn’t stupid (except for the drinking heehee) and it was just fun.
Interesting sidenote, in China, the man’s family pays for the wedding. We paid for our wedding mainly from wedding money and the generosity of our friends.
If you want to get married, marry a Chinese!
SENOR
My best friend got married in September and everything would have gone swimmingly if it weren’t for the fact that the bride’s aunt handed out corsages to all the ladies of the family, on both sides, EXCEPT for the bride’s new stepmother, who is Korean.
Aunt swears that it was an oversight–and having met the woman, I really do think it was, as she’s a lovely lady–but Stepmom was so upset she was crying into the wedding champagne, and insisting that Ex-Wife/MOB was somehow responsible for the horrendous insult…and saying that in Korea, ex-wives are considered dead by the New Wife, and that she considers Bride’s mother to be dead. DEAD, I say.
Four months later, and Father of Bride/New Wife still haven’t forgiven either Ex-Wife, or inexplicably, Bride herself. (Who was in the dressing room this whole time, and had absolutely nothing to do with it.)
Weddings are like communism.
They only sound good in theory.
I don’t know, Figi has a lot of islands, and the pictures I saw had my friend wrapped up like a bark burritto. But pretty.
Does everyone that has ever been married decide that they might like to go to Vegas and be married by an Elvis impersonator?
Oh the lucky few that escaped the family and did so.
I just about sprayed my monitor when I read this…
My wedding was ineptly organized, had the date moved up by two months five weeks before, had boycotts by all my husbands friends, involved getting a paralysed man up a gondola, involved me trecking thru a village carrying enough sandwiches for 5o when 15 people showed up, um had my grandmother concussed about 15 minutes after the ceremony was over, and somehow that day I lost my engagement ring and the bracelet I gave my husband as a wedding gift.
But everyone else thinks it was lovely, and it sounds very high falutin’ to say I got married on top of Whistler mountain.
Oh and as a bonus, my mother=in=law had to clean up excrement that day too.
See, this is why my wedding is going to be Minimal. I’m having two cakes (one gihugic white tiered monstrosity, one smaller and muchly of chocolate), giving out silver rubber duckies as the favors, wearing a white prom dress, telling my bridesmaids to go shopping together and pick out coordinating blue dresses that they like to wear, and having the groom wear the blue sharkskin suit that he already owns. And a fedora. Even though you’re probably not supposed to wear a hat to your own wedding. We’ll say we do, toss some rice, jump in a car and go party somewhere with a dj and a dance floor and a cash bar for liquor and free soda. Then we jump into a '52 Hudson Hornet sedan and go for a road trip around the country. When the wedding’ll be and where we’re getting a '52 Hudson Hornet sedan are the only questions. I want it to be as quick and painless as possible for everyone involved.
My best friend is disappointed, because she thinks I ought to have a storybook wedding. I told her that this is exactly the sort of thing that should be in my storybook. She’s lucky we’re not driving to Vegas and having Elvis hear us do.
But as a PS I vote for Vegas if I ever had to do it again. Or actually, maybe Niagra Falls. I’d love to have pics of me and hub married infront of Ripley’s Believe it or not!
Well…I grew up in Las Vegas, so getting married there was not as exciting as it might have been for others.
Typical wedding blunders:
Tho I called THREE times to make sure the ‘WE HAVE ONLY JUST BEGUN’ wedding chaple was still reserved for us, and assured three times that it was…When we showed up, they had no reservation for us and had to squeeze us in.
The minister we had booked for the wedding was drunk, and couldnt preform, and the backup minister wouldnt come till he was finished with his dinner.
An hour and a half later, we were finally married in the true “Las Vegas” cheezy style, and, yes, we had to listen to The Carpenters “We’ve only just begun” about 20 times!
Shoulda known it wouldnt last…sigh
When I go it’ll just be a party. I hate dresses, I don’t like cake, and I’m not into ritual. Large barbecue, all teh people I love. Sometime when everyone is full and happy we’ll stand up and ask for a moment and get married. Ceremony: five min. tops.
BWHAHAHA.
I never went through ANY of this.
My (then) girlfriend and I were on a holiday in the US (we’re from from Oz).
We were in Las Vegas for 2 nights.
On the 1st morning, my girlfriend woke up and said, hey do you wanna get married.
6 hours later we got married (the majority of the 6 hours was finding our if it was legal and finding some nice clothes to wear).
I copped grief from my (now) MIL as to how she missed her (only) daughter’s wedding, but I think she’s over it now. My mum didn’t give a rats as long as we were happy (although she did get to go to my brother wedding earlier the same year, so maybe she was wedding’d out).
But my (now) Brother-In-Law is going to have to jump through all the hoops just to keep his mum happy.
Elope. It’s cheap, it’s fun it’s (apparently) legal and you get one of the best stories to tell everyone.
BWHAHAHA.
Ok…
I sent an e-mail today (to the bride, copying the MOH, because I know they’re both busy…hopefully I’ll find out what I need to know), including:
-
What time is the wedding? I thought it was an evening wedding, but their website doesn’t have a time and since I haven’t received an invitation…
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What time is the rehearsal/rehearsal lunch? It’s a four hour drive for me, so this would be good to know.
-
Do I need to pick up my dress from the seamstress (probably a yes, since I haven’t tried it on yet) or will it be delivered somewhere. If it will be delivered, what happens if it needs to be adjusted?
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What time do I need to be at the wedding location? This affects what time I make my hair appointment for.
-
I know there are some appointments (makeup/nails) being set for the bridesmaids for either Friday or Saturday. Where and what time? It’d be a help to know - again, if Saturday, it affects what time I have to make my hair appointment for.
I like to have a mental schedule. No, I have to have a mental schedule or I get really stressed - I can hide it well, but it’s still there. So this is starting to make me bug out - I really just want to know where I need to be and when, and I’ll be there.
Swiddles wrote:
Any one else smell *fish * ?
Yep, that would be the traditional version of how it’s done. I’ve seen those, too. Obviously Fiji is going in for the Wedding Business and has adapted its customs for Western taste. But the only photos I could find were the touristy version.
These might be closer to the burrito version, but still not exactly what I remember. Anyhow, tapa cloth can be made very soft.
God I hate weddings. All weddings are bad, but the bigger and more elaborate they are, the more intolerable they are to sit through. I can’t stand the self-indulgence and pointless spending that goes on with those things either. There is absolutely no reason for a “rehearsal” except to prolong the agony. I might drive four hours for a wedding if it was like, my brother or something. I wouldn’t walk two feet for a rehearsal. I also can’t understand why the hell someone should have to shell out money for a dress to wear to someone else’s wedding. Why do people care how the wedding party is dressed? It’s the height of triviality. why does there even have to be a wedding party? It’s all so narcissistic. Look at me, look at me.
Thank God my wife was not so self-absorbed and attention-hungry as to demand a showy wedding (which I would have refused to attend anyway). We got married at my wife’s parents’ farm, in front of a clerk of court, with family and actual friends (not just fodder for an audience). We had no rehearsal and no bridesmaids. My wife’s sister was the maid of honor and my wife told her to wear whatever the fuck she felt like (my best man was wearing a T-shirt). The ceremony took about ten minutes and then we partied. That’s the way it should be, get it fucking over with, and get the drinking started.
The importance of weddings is grossly overstated. The cliche is that it’s “the most important day of your life,” but I would say that it’s the least important day of a marriage.
My mother practically expected that my husband and I would have eloped as well when we ran off with friends to the US Virgin Islands when they eloped there; we were asked along as their best man and maid of honor, and were the only guests. Unfortunately my husband’s father would have disowned him if we had, but what really mattered to him was that his mother would truly have been hurt if we’d eloped. So, we had a church wedding. I minimized fuss whenever possible at least - there are so many things you can cut out which the bridal magazines try to tell you people will just faint over should you not include them - without hurting feelings or going against etiquette. I still tell people to just elope and they’ll be so much less stressed. They don’t do it, though.
We had 50 people. We did the food and booze ourselves. The ladies were told to find a long black dress that they liked. The guys wore Converse hi-tops. Very little fuss involved.
We had maybe 10. We were there, the judge was there, my dad was there, and Airman’s family was there. No rehearsal, no frills.
I see absolutely no reason to buy into the huge-wedding bullshit. It’s needlessly expensive, it puts stress on everyone and on the couple’s relationship with each other and with their families. I’ve seen a few “bridezillas” alienate everyone in their quest for Their Perfect Day.
Robin