My Big Fat Guangdong Wedding
Chapter 1. The Dress
I didn’t move all the way to the other side of the planet and fall for a lovely Chinese girl to see her in a common western white wedding dress. I want this to be a proper Chinese wedding party. That means a RED Chinese wedding dress. Something like this one:
A proper red Chinese wedding dress.
There were 2 obstacles. First, there doesn’t seem to be a place to buy wedding dresses in any color, at least not one that I found in Dongguan. (Note: I finally did visit the wedding dress area in Guangzhou 2 years later – they had Chinese wedding dresses and western wedding dresses.) Second, you can use the dresses at the wedding photo studio during the photo shoot. Some of those will also rent you one of their dresses for the wedding dinner. For a country that’s so proud of its heritage, the selection of traditional outfits at most photo studios is surprisingly limited. 
Finally, we went hunting to find a shop that could make a Chinese wedding dress. It took a little looking around, but we found one hidden in an alley in downtown Dongguan. Here it is:
Wedding Outfits, Suits, and More!
After much violence discussion, my darling fiancee and I settled on a pattern and a fabric. The fitting is later this week.