Wedding photos

First, I must explain the difference of Taiwanese/Chinese wedding photos and American wedding photos. In America, typically a photographer shoots day-of photos in the wedding attire with the entire bridal party and it is a relatively quick process. In Taiwan, one must endure a day full of agony and have, well - crazy photos taken.

The Friday before our Taiwan reception (3rd of 3 wedding receptions), I was informed that we would be taking wedding photos and it would last "all day". Mike, in his business-mindset, thinks - ok. 9-5. not too bad. The whole process won't be bad. We head over at 9 AM and the make up starts. Yep, make-up. A whole lot of it. Not just for her, but for me too. We get into our. *stop* let's reverse this.

The Wednesday before our Taiwan reception. Lo-Lin informs me that we must go to "pick out wedding dresses". I know that Taiwan is different, so she, her mom, and myself go to France Taipei Bridal near her parents' home. A lot of talking, they are excited to have a white man in there (always too funny), and after 2 cups of really sweet cold black tea - we head upstairs to look at dresses. Dresses. Wow. Lots. After trying on about 15-20 of them - we have our selection: 5 dresses for the pictures. 2 dresses for the reception (1 of them was for both). 2 hours eliminated from my Wed. evening.

So, back to the chaos of Friday. So, we got into our clothes. I had a suit with many different shirts. Then, we start the photos. My Chinese is poor at best. Turn head left...tilt down....chin up...this goes on for 2 hours until lunch. They bring us some basic food and we change. More pictures. More pictures. More pictures. Then at 4, we have a snack. Then, we leave! Park. OMG. 90+ degrees and 90+% humidity. Then, somewhere in between and then the ocean! By this time, I'm pretty grumpy, but happy to be almost done. We get back, have dinner and I'm thinking - time to go home. WRONG!!!!!!!

Seriously, 9 hours of stuff and I was done. We waited almost an hour and then, we really had to do stuff. From the 200 photos they took, we had to pare it down to 30. and then choose some special things. It was 7:30 PM and her parents and sister-in law came to help. We chose the special ones and still had to narrow down from 140 to 30 pictures overall. Lo-Lin felt my grumpiness and told me to go home. Thankfully. She and her mom dealt with the remaining madness and she got home about 1:30 AM.

9 AM to 10 PM - I was there. 9 AM to 1:30 AM - Lo-Lin was there. wow.

Well, here are the results (btw - there are two types: photoshopped groups and individual photos):