The Wedding

It is apparently a lucky time to get married here in China. When walking early yesterday morning around 8.30 am I was rather surprised to see weddings underway.

Later on in the day I was in Shengli Lu (Shengli Road) in Shaoxing and was in time to see a bride and her new husband leave a building and with all the excitement, walk to her car. I quickly got my camera going. There is always a brass band of 5 or 6 people in red outfits, including drums that play a rather boring tune.

Rather than walking on a red carpet there were men scurrying around making sure the bride stepped on the hessian bags - I don't know the significance of this. (Couldn't afford the red carpet perhaps?)

As the party emerged from the building these "poles" were activated spraying the wedding party with thousands of sparkling bits of paper.

It is only a very short clip as I "lost" the couple in the crowded street.

Just start the video. Click on it and enjoy.

The Wedding Processions

The bride and groom's car.

The lead car with the brass band and drummer - second car with photographer

Apparently this is a custom that is known in this area, but not others. Certainly in other cities in this province, the wedding procedures are different. I find this quite amusing - quaint even. Generally this happens on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday as most of the weddings occur on these days.

A small truck or utility with about six musicians in red outfits with hats squeezed onto the back appears first of all, with the banging of the drums and the sound of trumpets. Behind this vehicle is a black car with someone holding a camera standing up with half his/her body out of the car. He/she is filming the procession for posterity.

The next car - adorned with flowers many of them stuck onto the car with sticky tape, appears and the bride and groom are sitting in the back. (I've even seen a smiling bride sitting next to the groom who was busily chatting on his mobile phone!) Then the families follow in several cars, often these are decorated with flowers or red and gold paper, and all the number plates are covered up with red and gold paper too. On Saturday there must have been many weddings as I was sitting in a pizza place in the city and it seemed nearly every five minutes another one of these processions passed by.