Wedding Glamour Shots!

Earlier I mentioned that in China, you get wedding photos taken months before the wedding, kind of like an engagement shoot.  But you don’t wear your own outfits, the photography company provides them.  I first heard about this months ago when Mandy got hers back and I immediately started saving my money for it.  I wanted to wait until I’d reached my goal weight, which I have now.  So to celebrate my 26th birthday, we got them done this Saturday! 

Mr. Li’s wife works at one of these places so we were able to get a REALLY good deal.  We chose a package that would have been 6,000RMB but we got a Mrs. Li discount so we only paid 4,000RMB.  I suspect the fact that we’re American may have a lot to do with it too.  I’m sure they’re excited to be able to boast having “international clientele” now.  Anyways, that’s $635, which is NOTHING compared to what something like this would cost in the US.  There’s a reason this kind of thing doesn’t exist in the US, it would be too damn expensive.  Our real wedding photography was $3,000 and we only got one outfit!  (They didn’t provide the clothes, hair, or makeup either.)  The package we chose gave us 8 different outfits, each with its own hairstyle and makeup.  We had come last Saturday to look through their dresses and see which ones I might like so I already had my first dress in mind.  I also came armed with a page full of hairstyles I liked.  So they put me in the dress, sat me down in front of a mirror, and got to work. 

I was loving it!  My hair looks like crap on a regular day to day basis, so it was so nice to finally see it professionally done.  The woman was a wizard.  My hair is thin and has little volume, but she made it look amazing.  The makeup part was funny.  After some foundation and a little eyeshadow I was like, “Wow, that looks perfect just like that.  What a great job!”  Then she put on some mascara and I thought “Ok, that’s more mascara than I’ve ever worn in my life.  But that’s ok , it still looks good.”  Then she put on some fake lashes and I was like, “Cool, never worn fake lashes before.”  Then she put on another set of fake lashes… and then she put mascara on the fake lashes… “Woah, all right, that’s ok.  That’s the style in China, they like to accentuate the eyes, I’ll go with the flow.”  Then she put on bright pink blush and orange lip gloss.  Haha, I have to admit I thought I looked pretty, but maybe a little whorish at that point.  But I’m hoping it’ll be like stage makeup where it looks crazy in daylight but perfect under the bright lights. 

The picture taking was fun.  We had a great photographer who had WAY more energy than we did.  The entire photoshoot took 12 hours.  At halfway through, I was satisfied.  We did not need to do 8 outfits.  The selection of dresses at this place was not that great, so we actually did the 4 best outfits first.  One wedding dress, one formal dress, one traditional Chinese dress, and one surprise outfit I’m not going talk about until we get the pictures back.  So for the last four, not only was I getting tired, but I also wasn’t very excited about them.  Three of the last four were done outside and it was overcast so we didn’t get any awesome sunset lighting or anything.  I also spent the second half worrying about Smudgie, who was sitting in his crate alone all day.  Adam and I started talking about getting McDonald’s for dinner and going home and relaxing.  That sounded like the best idea in the world.  I was really excited about that but then Mr. Li asked us to go to dinner with him.  No actually, he TOLD us to go to dinner with him.  That was the last thing I wanted to do.  We told him we couldn’t because Smudgie had been alone all day and we needed to go home but then he told us to bring Smudgie with us to the restaurant.  I guess there’s no saying no to Mr. Li.  So Smudgie came to dinner.  He didn’t like it at first but then he got some table scraps.  Mr. Li gave me a jar full of paper cranes for my birthday and inside there was also a note that said “wish you like it” and he drew a little smiley face on it.  It’s so darn cute, it totally makes up for making us go to dinner with him.

On Sunday we got Huainan Beef Soup for lunch, which was amazing.

Shao Bing

Also, I've discovered a new fruit that I love.  I've given up on mangosteen, by the way.  I forgot to write about this, but we got the chance to eat mangosteen in Xi Shuang Ban Na and they did taste good but they were incredibly messy and the texture of the fruit is very squishy.  I'd much rather drink mangosteen juice than eat one.  So anyways, the new fruit is called Yangmei or Chinese Bayberry or Yumberry.  It is unlike any fruit in the world as far as looks and taste and texture.  I just love it!  But the gowing season is very short, and its shelflife is very short too.  So I probably won't get to eat any more until this time next year.  The picture I took of it sucked so here's one from the internet:

And here's a cute picture of Smudgie in Adam's arms: