We may have just found out what Phase 2 ought to be!

In the spirit of yesterday’s post about the games people play at wedding receptions, here’s a snapshot from a Chinese wedding that placed eighth in the 2009 BRIDES Magazine and WPJA (Wedding Photojournalism Association) Photo Contest in the customs/culture category. It apparently captures the heretofore unknown custom of having the groom and groomsmen don ladies underthings before the wedding ceremony.

Kidding! The manties in this pic are actually part of the tradition wherein the Chinese groom and his groomsmen will do embarrassing or silly things (like sing and dance in frilly underpants) before the bride’s attendants will release her to them. But still, groomsmen donning panties. I kind of wish The Beard, his bestie, and my brother had done something similar before my wedding!

Know about the wedding shoe game? I don’t know how big it is in general, but I’ve heard it could possibly be a Dutch thing. For those who, like me up until a few days ago, haven’t heard of this particular wedding tradition, the shoe game is basically a game played by the bride and groom (or bride and bride or groom and groom) for the entertainment of the amassed guests at the reception. Whether they’re actually entertained is besides the point for this edition of love hate because I’m actually wondering what you think of it from a bride or groom’s perspective.

It goes down like so: Two chairs are placed on the dance floor, back to back. The couple sits, and removes their shoes, exchanging one so that each ends up with one shoe of their own and one of their partner’s. And then the wedding DJ asks a series of questions ostensibly meant to show how well the new marrieds know one another. When either thinks they do X or Y more/better/whatever, they raise their own shoe, and when they think their partner is the Xer or Yer, they raise their partner’s shoe. Sounds easy enough.

Here are some sample questions:

• Who is most likely to get lost?
• Who is the better cook/driver/swimmer/etc.?
• Who talks more?
• Who probably passed gas during the ceremony?
• Who will be the first to say “Not tonight, dear”?
• Who is going to wear the proverbial pants?
• Who spends more time in front of the mirror?
• Who wakes up grumpier in the morning?
• Who is more likely to be running late?
• Who spends more money?

And other loaded questions that your families can laugh about (or hold against you) for ages to come! I mean, really, who doesn’t love a good dirty laundry session – brides and grooms, tell us how you really feel! All right, I so I know it’s all in fun, but I can still hate it. The wedding shoe game just seems like something more appropriate to a shower and, furthermore, something that could potentially cause hurt feelings that would of course be suppressed until the day was over. Not to mention that there’s a good chance that any number of guests would be either bored or shocked once the game got underway, which is neither here nor there but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

What do you think? Am I just being a fuddy-duddy, and the wedding shoe game is really tons of fun? Or do you agree that the whole thing seems rather in poor taste for a wedding reception?

(Image via Sweet Chic Events, Inc., amazing pics taken by Laurie Peacock)

You lovely people send me so much great material re: weddings and wedding planning and wedding fashion that I sometimes don’t get to it all. Eventually, it starts to build up in my inbox, and that’s when I know it’s time to clean house with a post full of linky goodness. Today, as you may have guessed, is one of those days. Enjoy!

Geeky wedding invitations that will make your heart go squee!

Wedding clothes that fit your bottom line – and your bottom, hee.

An OMG amzing Star Wars wedding (not sure what’s up with the kid inflating the condom near the end, though) (warning: autoplay music)

Destroying the sanctity of marriage, one wedding at a time

Let your friends and family vote on what they’ll hear at your reception via your wedding website – maybe not the best idea?

Sometimes unhappily ever after starts right away

How did I miss this?? Vera Wang to Design a Line for David’s Bridal

Love LOOOOVE this wedding, even if the tree on the wedding cake does kind of look like a turd

The wine box wedding ceremony seems to be all the rage at moment

Planters wheel invites and one sweeeeet chuppah!

Can I be sad that no one used royalty-free video clips, rock & roll, explosion sounds, movie clip, and pictures of unicorns to make me a congratulatory video card when I got married? Because I am. I truly, truly am.

You know me, ladies and gents, I am all about personalization. But honestly, it can be pretty difficult to find things that are personalized or customizable that are of good quality – think dot matrix decals on glasses that come off in the dishwasher and that sort of thing. So I’m always a little hesitant to recommend personalized wedding gifts because it’s difficult to know what’s great when you’re not holding it in your hand. But when one of you lovely people thinks so highly of something you’ve received as a wedding gift or given to someone else as a wedding gift, of course I’m going to share!

So the topic of today’s post is one Lexington Studios, recommended to me by a reader and friend, CarolynKM, who had this to say about her experiences (along with pics, yay!):

I found myself looking for both a wedding and an anniversary gift for two couples that are near and dear to my heart. The more traditional “cash” present just didn’t make sense for them – people who fall into the “I have everything I need category” – or from me – who takes great pride in the art of gift-giving.

After months of poking around blogs, running random Google searches, and asking around for ideas from some of my craftiest of friends, I happened upon a truly wonderful artist who had just the right solution for my predicament. As someone who is not easily impressed, I really enjoyed the experience of creating two one-of-a-kind gifts for my parent’s 40th anniversary and for a good friend’s wedding.

How awesome are these pencil and magnet save-the-dates? Real bride and groom Amber and Jeff designed their own monogrammed magnets and had custom pencils engraved with their important info. Everything was prettily boxed and looked super professional, but it was DIY all the way for Amber, who said on Once Wed that her “craftiest pre-wedding endeavor involved cutting a heart out of construction paper”.

For real, I love stuff like this. Is anyone out there reading this thinking of a similarly original save-the-date? Or for those resigned to something simple, what kind would you be sending out of money, time, or skills were no object? I might have snagged this idea if I’d seen it before sending out my own save-the-dates, which were your standard postcard save-the-dates. They didn’t even have our pictures on them, boo!

How do caption lovers! It’s time once again to play Twistie’s Sunday Caption Madness! You all know how this works. I post a picture that’s worth a thousand words and you use a dozen or so (more or less) to produce a perfect caption. Next week I declare a winner and we all samba for joy in the privacy of our own homes and cubicles.

This week’s picture comes from the ‘sure hope this didn’t make it into Grandma’s photo album of the happy event’ file, and it looks a little like this:
Ready… set… snark!