Wedding Bells

This weekend I was lucky enough to be invited to the wedding of one of the teachers from school. This is my second wedding in Japan, so was a little more prepared for what was going to happen, but still there were some things that surprised me. I forgot about the part when the little child gives a bouquet to the bride. There was a little kid, must have been all of two years old, carrying a bunch of flowers bigger than him. His mother half dragged him up to the stage and he exchanged the flowers for a big toy. It is quite a cute custom, but I wonder where it comes from?
　
Here we are before the wedding, looking very respectable. I was a little shocked by how tall I look in the first photo, as I have never really noticed being particularly tall here, but it seems I must be.
　
This is the bride and groom and their parents. I think the big gold screen is just for photo purposes, but maybe it has a more traditional use. The outfit with the big white hat is the first thing the bride wears. After that she changes into a coloured kimono which has the colours of her new husbands family. After that there are a number of other changes. At this wedding there were only two more, but there are sometimes even more. Before the pink dress in the photo above she wore a western style white wedding dress.
　
But of course no wedding is complete without an after party. This is when all those respectable members of society drop their teacher roles and get completely blind drunk. I only went to the first after party, but if this is the state of them then, I hate to think what they ended up like after another couple of hours of drinking.