Kekkon Shiki - Yippi!

As a small child growing up in the 80s, I tended to picture lots and lots of white lace when I day-dreamed about my wedding (being a tomb boy, I never would have admitted that at the time - I'm still a touch embarrassed to be admitting it now). Now, the very thought leaves me with a, dare I type it, 'gag me with a spoon' on the tip of my tongue. 

Fortunately, white lace has no place in a traditional Japanese wedding (Japanese versions of western weddings, on the other hand...). Pictures of the shiromuku etc. have already been posted, so I won't go into detail on them here. A brief description of the TWO HOURS it took to get dressed will suffice, I think.

First, I got stripped down to just my undies (you'll find out what colour soon). Then I stepped into some thin undergarments, over which a make-up drop-cloth (something tells me that's not the right term...) was layered. My hair got all tucked back into various nettings and pins. Then I got painted. A white face and white neck, which I think really went well with my newly shaven neck (I forgot about that story, and what a story! To sum up, blond hair peeking from under a black wig doesn't look good, so I was asked to shave some whispies - I forgot until the night before and so asked my big sis, M, to do it for me with my dad's electric razor. Um...I lost more hair than I expected. I'll try to find the photos and post them afterwards).

After the white paint came eye make-up (lots of it!) and nice, red lips. Then the wig was lovingly placed over my strawberry blond locks.

I will state for the record that I did follow the old custom of having something old (hair pieces), something new (my special socks, which cost about $25.00 - for socks! Mind you, they are special), something borrowed (borrowed, rented...it's all the same thing) and something blue (which was discovered by all as I was being dressed - blue underwear shows through thin, white undergarments, apparently). It wasn't intentional, but when you need an excuse for why you wore bright blue undies, you take what you are offered (care of my dad when he heard about the blueness afterward).

I wore my hair three different ways - with just the ornaments, with a small hat and with the big hat (the one to hide my horns). I think I may just put examples of the three versions in their own, photo-only post. So, please check the next post for those ones.

The weather was cold, but there was no rain. This was key because our rickshaw ride would have been a no-go had precipitation decided to, er, rain on our parade (did you catch that? TWO, count'em, TWO, puns in one sentence, for we really did make a parade going down the street being followed by hordes of tourists).


The ceremony was short and sweet, and I didn't have to say a thing! I just had to remember which way to turn a branch (I cheated and looked at H), and to not let the sake go to my head (sure, it's only a few sips, but that stuff is strong!).


Anyway, I will write a 'ceremony' blog at a later date.

So hardcore it hurts!