Attractions
Articles 1 - Is this your 3rd time being bridemaid
Some ladies jump at every opportunity to be bridesmaids. Some need to carefully think about it for some time before they commit to the task.
Here, we are seeing 2 different types of bridesmaids.
From experience, we were lucky that my wife’s bridesmaids were very committed and responsible. Part of the smooth running of our wedding was because the bridesmaids ensured that the wedding day schedule was followed closely.
Even, some male friends were asked to be “bridesmaids” and they were very helpful in being drivers as well as helpers in other aspects.
For the first type of bridesmaids who always self-nominate themselves, it is quite pssoibly some may want to use such opportunity to flaunt themselves and even over-shadow the brides.
Thus, there is a taboo being created to restrain wannabe brides: the bridesmaids must not be more beuatiful than the bride.
However, this is not to mean in physical aspect but it actually meant that the bridesmaids must try not to have too heavy make-up or to wear too revealing clothes.
In a way, this is not to divert too much attention off the main star - the bride onto the bridesmaids.
However, I’m sure such people are rare and normally, bridesmaids are the bride’s best friends who really, from the bottom of their heart, to help out their best friend in such big life-transition event.
Another taboo for brides is that they can’t be bridesmaids more than twice as it may affect their marital luck. There could be some ladies out there who may already be in the right age to get married but not hitched yet. They may need to pay more attention to the number of times they are bridesmaids.
However, in this modern era, no one really bother much about this taboo. I have friends who have been bridesmaids 8 times!!! And she doesn’t really mind because she has a very kind heart and want to help her friends out.
In actual fact, the tasks for a bridesmaid is many.
5 roles a bridesmaid need to commit to:
1. inform the bride of all the nitty-gritty aspects of her wedding schedule
2. be the bride’s personal assistant
3. be the bride’s make-up artist
4. help the bride’s get water, wipe her sweat off and remind her to relax
5. remember all the customs and rituals that the bride needs to follow
It is really a big responsibilty and only ladies who are responsible, people-oriented, helpful and detailed can be bridesmaids.
Article 2 - Bachelor Party Ideas
Bachelor parties are a time honored tradition. Legends suggest that the celebration dates back to the ancient Spartans of Greece. In later times, the bourgeois elite adapted the bachelor party, making it a formal evening of cocktails and smoking that would close with a toast to the bride's health. The modern bachelor party is often seen as a last opportunity for drunken debauchery before permanently losing a friend to the other side of marriage, but not all bachelor parties involve beer and strippers.
Know What the Groom Wants
One day your best friend will announce he's getting married, and as best man, it will be up to you to plan a night to send him off right. All too often though, an especially gregarious best man plans the bachelor party of his dreams for his best friend. And maybe your best friend does want a night of no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners, what-happens-in-Vegas-stays-in-Vegas action. But then again, maybe he doesn't. Talk to him and make sure your plans won't offend him or his bride. Whether you like it or not, your best friend is planning to spend the rest of his life with this woman, and as a best friend, you never want to provide fodder for arguments. Depending on his future wife, one night of fun may not be worth all the trouble he'll be in. Also, while a lot of guys certainly won't mind seeing some drinks, and more, many would say it's more important to also include some sort of male bonding activity. Paintball competitions, camping, and snowboarding trips are becoming increasingly popular for bachelor party weekends.
Party Planning Tips
Don't plan to have the bachelor party on the night before the wedding. This used to be the way it was done, but too many prolonged hangovers by too many grooms have changed the tradition, and rightly so. The one night event is increasingly turning into a multi-day excursion, with guys getting together for one last weekend trip that might take place a week, or months, before the ceremony. Vegas and Atlantic City are popular destinations. Talk to the groom to pick a good date, and then discuss it with the rest of the wedding party. Be attentive to the groom's interests – maybe take him to his favorite sporting event, but do all the planning yourself. Have the other guys chip in and pay in advance to cover the groom's costs. If any sort of bar tour is involved, it's smarter and a lot more fun to hire a limo or minibus for transportation. Just remember to show the driver some respect.
Get Creative
A bachelor party may indeed be the last chance for you and your buddies to get together, at least without any women present, so make it something unique you'll remember. Plenty of your friends will plan trips to clubs and Vegas or hire dancers. Likely, you'll be drunk and remember nothing of the experience, or, what is remembered you'll either not be allowed to speak of or you won't want to remember. So, why not do something adventurous? There are bachelor party outfitters who specializing in skydiving, rafting, steer wrangling, and fishing trips. Not only can you have testosterone raising fun your girlfriends and wives can't get upset about, but the outfitters handle all the planning too.
Articles 3 - Walking Under Pants
According to Chinese wedidng customs, it is always ideal for the elder brother to get married first, followed by the younger ones.
However, there will be times when the younger brother get married first. It is unrealistic for him to forgo his wedding plan just because his elder brother has yet to find his ideal life partner.
In such circumstances, the elder brother has to “give way” to the younger siblings and let them tie the knots before him.
There is a ritual that the younger brother or sister had to crawl under the elder brother’s pants before stepping out of the house.
The significance of it is to show the approval of the marriage by the elder brother and the younger sibling could then be happily married rather than openly resented.
It is an act of apology to the elder siblings that “Sorry, I don’t mean to spite you because you can’t find a suitable wife. I am getting married before you though you are older than me.”
Interestingly, this ridiculous practice is still being done even in Singapore.
I remembered a friend told me that she jokingly told her mom about this wedding ritual that she had to go through at the groom’s place. Initially, she shared it because she found it to be comical and funny
However, soon after her mother heard it and she found it to an insult to her daughter. She grew so furious that she severed ties with the in-laws and she is still angry about this issue even 10 years have passed.
So this is only to show that Chinese are in general very particular over such customs and may find wedding customs of other dialect groups weird or even insulting to their dialect group.
