continuing on the subject of wedding...

my brother went to a Chinese style wedding banquet at Grand Hyatt in HK.  my mom told me that his comment was...

It has been a long time since I last wrote an entry that actually says something about my heart.  Sometimes it is hard to express feelings in words, isn't it?  Anyway, I'll try.

About three weeks ago, I officially became a bride-to-be.  (By official I mean obtaining approval from both my dad and mom AFTER being popped the question...)  Since then I have started researching on everything about wedding because I knew almost NOTHING about getting married.  To be honest I have never thought about what kind of wedding I want, what kind of dress I would wear, who would be on my guest list, etc.  The planning work was overwhelming at first.  Think about photographer+videographer, venue for the ceremony, venue for banquet in HK, wedding dress, make-up artist, invitations, wedding favors, PLUS all the chinese traditions like 出嫁, 過大禮, 回門...   You can easily come up with literally 100 tasks to do for getting married and 100 things to pay for!!  Oh my goodness, somebody please just shoot me!! 

(Yes, I'm such kind of bride-to-be...  I am still in denial that a wedding is "a bride's thing" and every bride has fun planning for her wedding.)

Is there any "African Story Teller" classmate reading here?  Remember the terms rite of passage and ordeal?  Now I finally understand why the stories often portrait someone's rite of passage being made up of ordeals...

Anyway, in the course of generating a laundry list of things that I will have to do, I already found something pretty amusing/perplexing in the past three weeks.  Let me share them here...  I hope I am not offending anybody out there! 

Let me start with the wedding dress.  Why the big fuss about a "dream dress"??  Why does it have to be "perfect", and thus expensive?  Is it just something that the bridal industry makes people believe?  I find it hard to find a balance between price and quality.  A good quality wedding dress can easily cost $1500 to $4500+.  By good quality I mean good fabric and good workmanship on details.  Even if you custom order one in HK, it still costs you US$1000 for a good quality dress.  If you are Kelly Chen, of course $1000 is no big deal.  Unfortunately we are not Kelly Chen, except Kelly Chen...  And if you think about it, the bride only wears the dress for several hours (at most) on her wedding day.  The "once-in-a-lifetime" thing still doesn't quite justify the price IMHO...  Of course there are other options like pre-owned dresses or wedding dress rental (in HK), and a possibility of reuse by your daughter, but that's not the point.  Is it just me who feels the pressure to find the perfect dress?

The same goes for photography and videography.  "Once-in-a-lifetime"....... *sigh*

And then there are all these american traditions: engagement party, bridal shower, bachelorette/bachelor's party, rehersal dinner, etc.   Four celebrations already BEFORE the wedding??  I don't get it, and I don't intend to, cos I'm not going to have ALL of that... I hope.

Let's talk about the engagement ring.  First thing first, I love my ring, just because it is what my fiance chose for me.  (Of course the fact that the ring is beeeeeeeeeautiful doesn't hurt. )  Hmm... the only funny thing about the ring is that when I was asked whether I liked the ring, I didn't know how to answer.  Here is why: I have never paid much attention to diamond all my life.  I have no concept of what makes a ring good or not.  And when I cannot discern whether something is good or not, I do not fall in love with that thing.  (Think music, or art...)  People have to understand that people like me do exist...  It takes time to develop a taste and appreciation for something precious.

Last but not the least, I don't plan to take those engagement photos (aka 婚紗相).  Not that I disagree with couples who do take engagement photos, but I just don't think it is my thing.  I don't exactly like dressing up and posing for pictures.  That's all.

我覺得我係個(o懶)另類待嫁姑娘...