There is something truly magical about that special time in a person's life, when they get married to their beloved one!
I cannot, of course, tell this to you from experience! But I can dream along with the rest of you.
Recently, Ian and I learned that one of our loveliest colleagues is going to be married soon!
She looks stunningly beautiful in her wedding gowns, and has been kind enough to share some wedding secrets with me...
結婚是一門比愛更嚴肅的群體功課!
She told me about Taiwanese weddings and her plans for the 'Big Day'. It sounds very exciting! One thing that surprised me is that she will wear 3 different dresses on that day. She plans to wear one white wedding dress (白紗禮服), a traditional qi pao (旗袍)and an evening dress. I think that is太好了! Not only can you feel pretty and delicate in one wonderful dress, you can change and be beautiful in another dress! At the weddings that I have been to, the bride only wore one dress - for the ceremony, the dinner and for the celebrations!
I think my workmate looks stunning in her white wedding dress. Let me explain why it's traditional for the bride to wear white. In the past, white represented purity and joy, but now brides wear white as a tradition. Although wedding fashions may have changed over the years, the white bridal gown is still an everlasting feature.
My workmate told me that she loves the traditional Taiwanese dress. That's why she chose to wear the 旗袍 for one of her dresses. Stephanie told me that at British weddings, the female guests wear a hat as part of their formal clothes! And let's not forget the Scots with their kilts - an amazing feature of the man's formal dress!
My colleague also told me that to prepare for her wedding day she is trying to keep her skin white and beautiful. Like all brides, she wants to be thin so she's dieting too!
Something interesting that she told me about Taiwanese weddings is a certain tradition. On the morning of the wedding day the groom needs to drive to the bride's house. Once there, he will get down on his knees and promise the bride's parents to take good care of their daughter. Then the groom will take his bride to the car and they can leave for the wedding. Then her mother will throw out some water, because she is letting go of her daugher!
This is very different from the wedding day in Australia, Canada or Britain. In these countries, it's considered bad luck if the groom sees the bride in her wedding dress before she walks down the aisle!
The wedding ring is very important - it is a perfect circle with no beginning and no end, symbolizing the never-ending love between a couple. Usually in western weddings there is a ring-bearer who carries the ring on a little pillow. The ring-bearer is usually a young relative of the bride or groom.
我哥哥和我，他是ring-bearer
Some other interesting things about western weddings are some of their traditions. Ian told me that in Canada, if a guest taps their glass with their fork, then the bride and groom have to kiss!
And this is a very old rhyme about wedding preparation:
Something old and something new...
Something borrowed, something blue
Add a silver sixpence to your shoe
It is traditional for the bride to have something from each category so that her marriage will be lucky. Although these days, the silver sixpence is often left out!
And my last piece of western wedding trivia would be the idiom "to tie the knot". This expression means 'to become married', but the history behind this phrase is very interesting! The Romans had a tradition of brides wearing a knotted 帶 for the groom to undo later!
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