My Big Fat Guangdong Wedding
Chapter 7. Shop till you drop. Keep shopping till you die
We did some test fittings at the wedding photo place. My darling looked magnificent in almost everything. So many of the qipaos looked like they’d been custom fitted for her. 
Then I tried to squeeze into a few things. Sadly, they seemed mostly sized to fit smaller local guys. 
I still think this is strange. Southern Chinese do tend to be a bit on the small side, but I have a few local friends who are bigger than I am. I’m not sure how some of my larger friends would ever find anything to fit at local wedding studios.
There were a few things that would fit, but only a few. It was time for an emergency shopping run. We went back to where my darling had her qipao made. After some debate, we ordered a matching shirt for me made from the same fabric as her wedding dress. It’s going to end up being less than 200 RMB.
They had a round collared (Mao-style) dress suit I’d been admiring on previous visits. This left a dilemma. What kind of shirt do you wear with a round collared suit. Happily, they had round collared shirts. Nothing was quite my size, so measurements were taken. Now I’m just hoping everything is done by Thursday night, since the photo shoot is on Friday and Saturday.
Round Collared Shirt
Next came the invitations. We found some we liked, but the shop didn’t have enough. They said to come back in 2 hours. We waited while they called their supplier to be certain that they could get more of the same invites – they claimed they could. We then wandered around downtown for 2 hours, looking at other things – like wedding bedding. Not sure what to do with the auspicious looking red sheets after the wedding, but I guess we could break them out each year for our anniversary.
We came back to the stationary store after 2 hours. Somehow, it turns out that their supplier couldn’t get the same invitations. 
We checked a few other places. No one had enough of any style we liked, and I wasn’t going to waste another two hours for nothing.
Finally, we ended up at the XinHua bookstore downtown. At last, large supplies of invitations and envelopes. 100 RMB later and we had more than enough.
Chinese Wedding Invitation
Shopping for a wedding is a pain. What’s left to buy? Errrr…. wedding bedding, wedding rings, lots of other odds and ends. We’re running in so many directions at once that I have no idea if we’ll ever get everything done. If a simple thing like wedding invitations takes hours to accomplish, where will I find time to get all this stuff?
Right now, I’m just focused on surviving the photo shoot. When we were looking at outfits, I was discussing with my darling which clothing would match which backdrops. She translated some of that to the people at the shop and they were shocked. It seems that the “normal” procedure is for us to pick outfits (that may or may not match each other) and the photographer would then select a background that would match what we were wearing. A client picking a costume to match a background was completely unheard of. 
Happily, when Chinese people see my hair and beard, they immediately assume I’m an artist of some sort. 
I’m going to have my darling let the photographer know that I am an artist, and that I will be selecting all the backgrounds. I’ll be willing to consider the photographer’s suggestions for poses, but won’t feel obligated to comply and may very well do some directing myself.
I’ve asked her to explain that I’m really a very nice person, unless provoked. 
Oh wait. I need some shoes and a belt. I don’t trust the photo place to have either in my size. 
<– Back to Chapter 6. –> Chapter 8. Clothes, Photos, Swords, and the World’s Most Unsubtle Spy –>