I am the coordinator for weddings at our church so basically I make sure the bride/groom/ friends can get into the church when they need to.
Sometimes I decorate the stage and sometimes they want to do it themselves. I help with set up and tear down of the decorations and make sure the sanctuary and any other rooms they've used are back to normal once they leave.
Today I coordinated a Chinese wedding at our church and it was interesting.
Traditionally the Chinese couple who are getting married will wake up at dawn and will get ready.
The bride wears red.
The groom wears a tux with a shirt that look like its crawling out of the jacket and up his neck.
Then a few of the men go to the bride's house, kidnap her and take her to another place where she plays games with her friends.
There is a tea ceremony with each set of parents and then they get married in the church.
After the wedding there is a reception (Chinese food of course) followed by a banquet later on in the evening. The festivities continue way into the night.
Today the bride arrived an hour before the ceremony in a stunning traditional red Chinese dress with a bouquet of red roses. She changed into her wedding dress (white) and her makeup matched her dress. She looked like a geisha - aren't geisha's Japanese? The makeup looked worse than stage makeup but I guess that's what they do. The groom changed into what looked like a Chinese military outfit and he had on white shoes that reminded me of pixie boots - you know the kind with the pointed toe that goes up in the front. They were pretty cool actually...they just needed a bell on the tip of the toe.
I had to laugh during the ceremony because as soon as the bride began her slow wedding step down the aisle with her father, all the cameras and camera phones came out and everyone took photos. It was like Paris Hilton had entered the building...over 50 flashes going off as she went down the aisle.
There was an official photographer but 2 other guys decided they were going to take photos too so they were up on the stage, dashing around, trying to get the best picture of the bride and groom. The official photographer was getting cheezed off and tried to wave them off the stage a few times.
Then there was some guy in tacky jeans and a scruffy T-shirt standing directly behind the bride and groom who videotaped the ceremony. There was yet another guy who was videotaping and walked around, up and down the aisle, at the back of the stage and across the front of the church, filming everyone including the bride and groom. It was so weird.
The entire ceremony was in Chinese and fortunately the order of service was in English but even then there were some surprise moments for Warren (who was doing sound) when odd people got up to talk at the microphone. He was on his toes throughout the ceremony.
After the ceremony the photographer took 1.5 hours to get the photos done on the stage. He took about 10 shots per pose and man, were there poses. The bride at the piano with him leaning on it watching her; him sitting at the piano with her (I have no idea if she actually can play), posing with the ring bearers cushion, posing with the candles, posing with the drapes that were on the stage, a posing kiss, her looking dreamily into his eyes, etc.
The boys had to come with us to the church and they were fantastic throughout the day. I let them watch a movie in a classroom during the wedding ceremony and they helped Warren and I clean the wax off the candelabras before we put them away. So they are now watching Indiana Jones and tomorrow we're taking them to the pool. The poor kids have been to the church 6 days this week so we're bunking church (playing hooky) and tomorrow is our Sabbath...we're going to REST!