Love Affairs in Melbourne-Chapter 114 - 111 Best Man’s Table and Bridesmaid’s Table (Extra for @Top Mo Fan, the 4th Alliance Hierarch)

Chapter 114: Chapter 111 Best Man’s Table and Bridesmaid’s Table (Extra for @Top Mo Fan, the 4th Alliance Hierarch)

August 20, 2011, the 21st day of the seventh lunar month, was the wedding of Liu Siyan and Lu Ying.

Yan Yan was a bridesmaid, and Qi Yi was a groomsman.

Were Yan Yan and Qi Yi that close to the couple getting married?

Even with the main character’s aura, you can’t just make things up—was Qi Yi really like a brother to Liu Siyan, or was Yan Yan that close to Lu Ying?

The fact was, though, that these four individuals were not each other’s best friends. And even if they were, they certainly wouldn’t choose someone who only returned from abroad by plane on the afternoon before the wedding day as their sole bridesmaid or groomsman. What if the flight was canceled—should they leave a hole in the sky?

To understand this matter, one has to start with the wedding customs of the Wenzhou people.

In Wenzhou weddings, the most prominent table is the "Uncle’s table."

On the wedding day, the uncle is of the utmost importance.

The bride’s uncle and the bride’s family sit at one table; if there are not many relatives, then the groom’s parents may also sit at the uncle’s table. If both sides have a significant number of relatives, the groom’s parents and close family will sit at another table.

But these are not the strangest traditions.

The key is, neither the groom nor the bride actually sits at the main table.

In Wenzhou weddings, in addition to the main table, there is also the groomsman’s table and the bridesmaid’s table.

The groom and nine groomsmen make up the groomsman’s table, and the bride and nine bridesmaids make up the bridesmaid’s table.

According to the customs of Wenzhou City, on the afternoon of the wedding day, the groom must bring nine groomsmen to the bride’s house to fetch the bride and be reviewed by the bride and her nine bridesmaids.

So, Qi Yi and Yan Yan are just one-ninth of the equation, and they didn’t need a particularly close relationship with the couple. Replacing someone at the last minute also happened from time to time.

As many people are required, Wenzhou’s bridesmaids are also unusual; as long as a woman is not pregnant, which is believed to be inauspicious because it might overshadow the bride’s prospects of having children, she can be a bridesmaid.

That is to say, in Wenzhou, women who are married or have had children can also be bridesmaids.

Although married women can be chosen, if there are enough unmarried female friends available, naturally it is better to choose the unmarried ones.

Married bridesmaids who have had children are usually the second option.

Liu Siyan and Lu Ying were the first in their class to marry, so their options for groomsmen and bridesmaids were "more than sufficient."

If one were to wait until the last person in the class to get married, it would be very difficult to find the "first-choice" groomsmen and bridesmaids.

Because of this, most girls have already served as bridesmaids five or six times before their own wedding.

As classmates’ bridesmaids, as bridesmaids at the weddings of close and distant relatives.

Despite Wenzhou’s complex wedding traditions, many people are already experts by the time their own wedding day arrives.

On the wedding day, the groom starts to get busy only in the afternoon, while the bride needs to rise early.

She has to get up early in the morning, have a quick breakfast, and then wait for the makeup artist to come.

If the groom is coming to fetch the bride at four or five in the afternoon, the bride must start applying her makeup by nine in the morning.

Does it take seven or eight hours to apply makeup?

The answer is yes.

In Wenzhou, a good bridal makeup job can cost upwards of ten thousand dollars.

If one chooses a particularly auspicious day to get married, the hotel has to be booked well in advance, and makeup artists must be scheduled at least six months beforehand, with half of the deposit paid in advance.

Two days before the wedding, the makeup artist will come to see the various outfits the bride has picked out and then go back to prepare the accessories for the hair and makeup.

Top-tier wedding makeup artists must excel at both hair and makeup alike.

On the wedding day, the makeup artist would arrive at the bride’s place early in the morning,

responsible for the makeup and hair of both the bride and the bride’s mother.

The bride’s makeup would take four hours, the mother’s about an hour.

What to do with the remaining three hours? Meals have to be eaten, makeup needs touch-ups, and if the Bridesmaid Team doesn’t include someone skilled in makeup, the makeup artist would quickly apply a simple look to those bridesmaids who lack makeup skills.

However, this is predicated on the bride’s makeup being straightforward. If the makeup style is akin to "plastic surgery," the makeup artist would only be responsible for the bride alone.

Lu Ying was blessed with a good foundation, she just needed a more realistic, natural, and radiant makeup look based on her original features.

A beautiful makeup look could never be heavy or gaudy.

Lu Ying’s makeup artist could even find time to take care of three or four bridesmaids’ makeup before the afternoon’s picking-up-the-bride ritual.

A true makeup maestro, with a flick of their wrist, can achieve a look far more refined than what many would manage to apply themselves in an hour.

In 2011, was spending ten thousand dollars on makeup worth it?

Only the bride herself could answer that question.

If the bride didn’t have special requests, heading to an ordinary makeup studio for a slightly nicer look than what she usually wore, would cost just a few hundred dollars, and bringing along the bridesmaids, each of their makeup would cost even less than a hundred.

How much to spend on a wedding in Wenzhou, like the small alley restaurants, was something without a set standard.

Take wedding dresses, for instance—some find decent ones online for just a few hundred dollars.

Yet, there are many bridal shops in Wenzhou. If you opt to rent a wedding dress, a single day’s rental could cost tens of thousands of dollars.

If you’re willing to spend so much to rent a wedding dress, why not buy one outright?

Has your brain taken water?

Nevertheless, the Wenzhou people, known for their commercial savvy, would often do just that.

The top-tier wedding dresses available for rent could cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase.

The most crucial point is, if you don’t plan on "getting married often," these dresses will eventually become a cumbersome occupant in the wardrobe.

Theoretically, those who have never been married can’t understand this sense of encumbrance.

But the girls from Wenzhou, having played bridesmaid multiple times, would receive a series of advice from newlyweds they had supported when their own weddings approached.

Then again, advice comes in many forms, and whether you listen or not depends on yourself.

When you first get married, you might feel like your wardrobe is "lawlessly" spacious and insist on a wedding dress that takes up substantial space. However, a few years later when you need to make room for new clothes, you might question whether you can bear to part with your wedding dress.

There is a timeless truth—women’s wardrobes are never big enough.

If you don’t have a wardrobe yet, then don’t make decisions that you are certain will make your future self crumble.

Keeping it is burdensome, but parting with it is hard.

Using the money for a wedding dress to rent an even better-looking gown with superior tailoring is a decision validated by the business acumen of Wenzhou merchants.

Another commonly cited reason not to buy a wedding dress is that very few people can maintain their wedding day figure after ten or twenty years.

What does a garment you can see but no longer wear leave you with—sweet memories or sorrow?