My Big, Fake, Japanese Wedding

Hello everyone, happy happy news! I got "married" on Saturday!!!

Look how many people came to our wedding!

Not really. Obviously. I am as single as the tires on a unicycle. (Let me take a minute to go cry in the corner by myself. OK, over it.) The idea of me getting sporadically married to guy no one has ever heard of (I, myself, met him that morning,) without telling any friends or family is pretty... impossible.

"But Kait, why are you wearing a wedding dress?" you may be asking. Well friend, let me tell you! Because I look good in it!  ...one hopes. Haha. The truth is, my friend here in Japan performs wedding ceremonies. He does them in Japanese or English, and I'm sure he can do them in Dutch, as he's from the Netherlands.

Weddings in Japan are strangely similar and yet strangely different than weddings in the States. As Japan is a largely non-Christian country, there are few churches to get married in. People get married in shrines, hotels, or at special wedding venues that do it all for you. (Or a combination of 2 of those.) Brides here don't buy wedding dresses. They rent them from the bridal shops or wedding venues for extremely high prices. (It costs similar to buying a really nice dress in America, but only renting it.) Often, the bride will wear 2 or 3 different outfits, such a traditional wedding kimono, a traditional white wedding dress, and then some crazy wedding dress/prom dress love child on crack.)

Images:  Abazias.com, Atelier Luce, weheartit.com from weddingphotography.com

That's pretty much it. More traditional brides may only have one of the first 2 dresses/kimono, where the more "fancy" (for lack of a better word) can go all out and have 3 to 5 different outfits. That's a lot of costume changes! Usually they'll do the kimono for a traditional shrine wedding, then change into other dresses for the reception. Receptions in this case are their own types of ceremonies, as often only relatives go to the wedding at the shrine. If they have a "traditional Western style" wedding at a Wedding venue or hotel, they'll usually wear a traditional white wedding gown for the ceremony, and then change into kimono and/or the crazy wedding dresses for the reception.

Receptions are carefully organized and planned events where the guests get drunk as the bride and groom change costume a billion times, have speeches made, and do special symbolic things like lighting candles together or pouring glowing liquid into a fountain together, etc. Not the western style of toasts, and then dance floor. There is no dance floor (unless specially requested.)

From my friend San-chan's wedding. Their love is aglow!

Anyway, there is a ton more to say about Japanese weddings, so if you're interested, take a look around the internet. I'll just go back to MY special "wedding"day. So yes, weddings are a big thing here. There are many different venues trying to get the bride to come to them and let them provide everything, for big bucks. To help bring in prospective clients, venues sometimes have demonstrations to show clients what the wedding ceremony looks like, without actually invading someone's special day.

My friend Jack asked me to help him out with such a thing. The day was coming and they had no "bride." Of course, thrilled to take any chance where I get to dress up in costumes, I jumped at the chance to be pretend bride for the day. I met my "groom" in the car on the way to Izumo, where Belle Bruge, the wedding venue, was. We got there, greeted the staff, and said our "yoroshiku"s, then went to see where the ceremony would take place.

The grooms?

We practiced the ceremony a few times so I would know what to do, and then I went to get hair and make up done, and get dressed. Because Jack told me I would have hair and make up, I didn't put any on. But, she was extremely light with the make up, just eyebrow pencil, eyeshadow, a little blush, and lip gloss. The dark circles under my eye were not happy.

More make up please!

Then I got in my dress. She spread it out, looked at it and decided it wasn't poofy enough, and went to get more poof.

Not nearly poofy enough.

Poof on demand!

I was concerned about it fitting, because nothing in Japan ever fits me, but I squeezed in all right. The bra padding was a little small, but once the dress was laced up, it seemed fine. I then had to remove all my earrings, so I could wear the clip on ones, and a necklace, tiara, veil, and gloves.

please climb into this giant cupcake of taffeta

Pre-"wedding" selfie

The "groom" got dressed as well, and had a hard time buttoning the shirt around his neck, but managed in the end. Then we waited while the "guests" arrived. 4 couples and 1 pair of girls (couple? bride and friend/sister/mother? I don't know) came to watch the wedding and see if it was how they wanted to get married.

We walked down the aisle to applause, there were prayers, fake resizable cheap rings were exchanged, we got to pretend to kiss, pretend to sign a marriage contract, say "I do" in Japanese (Hai, chikaimasu,) listen to "You Raise Me Up" being sung while feathers fell from the ceiling onto us, bow to the audience, and walk out. It was, indeed, a wedding ceremony. The best part was when Jack said something majestic in Japanese and then raised his hands, and the curtains behind him opened to show windows with a fake pool with fire burning in the center of it. I almost burst out laughing, but contained myself. You really had to be there.

Can you see the pool and fire?

After that, the dress and too small shoes came off, thank goodness! And my hair was brushed out and we were done. After many thanks and "otsukaresama deshita"s (thank you for all your hard work,) we left and were on our way back home. And that was my pretend Japanese wedding. Lots of fun, would totally do it again.

The "newly-weds" thank you for everything!