I went to the beach on Saturday and witnessed an interesting phenomena.  One of the most popular locations for wedding photos is seaside.  I know a lot about Chinese wedding photography now because my friend Mike just got married in China and he went through this drill.  He shared his photos and experience with me over a couple cold Tsing Tao beers.

There are two paths to marriage in China.

• – The first is a civil ceremony (there aren’t very many churches in China) accompanied by a very big and very expensive hotel / restaurant wedding celebration .  These are well documented with photographers & videographers.
• – The second flavor is a simple civil ceremony with a smaller family dinner with very little fanfare (Mike wore a Green Bay Packers T-shirt to his wedding) .

Usually before either of these types of weddings couples hire a photographer to shoot photos in various borrowed outfits in several locations.  In one of Mike’s photos he’s wearing a  leprechaun outfit and is holding a violin.  He will never hear the end of that.

While I was at the beach I saw the process first hand.  There were five wedding shoots happening on the beach at one time and there were three more couples in the warm-up circle. A typhoon was supposed to hit the next day and the photographers may have doubled-down on the schedule.  (The typhoon missed this area and went north.)  One of the brides was quickly turning into a Bridezilla because she apparently didn’t like to be kept waiting.  Her new groom was considerably more relaxed about the situation.  She reminded me why I will probably remain a bachelor for a long time.