Creative Date Week 13 - The Wedding Pre Shoot

"Happiness is fleeting, but at least we got a picture."

Some days ago I came across a couple taking wedding pre shoot near little Italy. I stood there and watched them for a minute. I have to say that it is a beautiful scene even though they probably felt tired and stayed at the same spot taking photos for more than half of hour. Today I read an article on New Yorker talking in a sarcastic way about "The perfect engagement photo session". It used a cynical tone and wrote in a photographer perspective around the unnaturalness and fakeness of taking the wedding pre shoot with awkward poses (including certain angle to show off the ring!) to capture the "happy" moment. It reminds me of the wedding business in China. In recent years, wedding planning has become one of the hottest trend among young Chinese. A new couple in Beijing spent on average about 250 thousands RMB ( 36 thousands US dollar) for just the wedding ceremony itself. The pre wedding shoot is considered as one of compulsory activities as part of wedding ceremony which cost from 1000 US dollar to 5000 US dollar. Usually the new couple will go for pre shoot in order to have their photos ready at the wedding ceremony. The giant printout of the photos usually will be hang outside the hotels, new home as an announcement of "it's us, we got married!" (It is sometimes important as some of the guests invited to the wedding may never met the couples before, so they need a photo and name reference in order to enter the correct wedding). The services of photoshoots are diverse. Some studio offer travel + photoshoot package. It allows the couple to travel to somewhere with the photography team followed them to take pictures. Usually the package including costumes, makeup, transport, hotels and of course photograhers (sometimes I even saw pose suggesters). The most popular places are beaches in southeast Asia, old town in southern part of China and also Europe becomes increasingly popular with the increasing household income of Chinese (For people who cannot afford traveling, I also saw many people drive to the downstairs of my condo in China as it has european style fountain and architectures). In order the get the best shoot, some couples choose to go places with extreme condition. Once I was traveling in Tibet, I was frozen on the top of a mountain with three layers thick jackets and only eyes outside. Then I saw one brave couple on the other side of me with a carpet red dress, high heels and thin layer suite taking pre shoot against the strong wind.

Put it aside if it is worth to spend so much efforts on the wedding pre shoot, it gradually becomes the distinct culture and phenomenon in China. However, when I see people (most are women) are crazy about these new rituals, I keep hearing complains from my surroundings. One of my girlfriends said she was actually anxious and depressed before getting married. She was not ready at that moment but still continue asking different studio one by one to get the best deal of offer. "It was a super tiring process. So many things need to be decided on detailed levels. Eventually, I feel I am getting married to satisfy my parents' expectation, my parents' colleagues and friends' expectation, I keep compromising and this is not my wedding in the end." However, in the wechat moments, all the efforts were not mentioned, only beautifully photoshopped pictures are posted. At that moment, I feel they are the happiest couple in the world. Another girl I knew got married also experienced the similar hectic situation. Her problem is that her husband never participated in the process of planning. She lives in Singapore but decided to take wedding pre shoot in China as the price is lower. She flied to China twice: once to just take photos and second to have the wedding ceremony. This used up most of her vacation of the year. Other stories with similar frustration happened to my cousin and many other girlfriends I knew who recently got married. The whole process is devastating and energy consuming. It is one of the best representations of consumerism in our age. We value the form more than ever before where we need the best photos and grandest ceremony to show the love to other people (if we still know what love really is).

Lastly, I recall my parents' wedding photos. They also take pre shoot before they got married (My dad even stands on a stood to make himself looks higher). However, my favorite photos of them are the one they traveled together in honeymoon. They have the most natural big smile on their face with the simple casual clothes. In one photo, my dad appears shorter than my mom, but he still has a confident look on his face, with their hands holding together walking towards the front. On my dad's simple Tshirt, it printed a Chinese saying: 风雨同舟 (It literally means always in the same boat no matter comes with wind or rain).