Chinese wedding traditions: 8. Pre-wedding photo shooting(Behind the scenes)

Posted by

Another typical Chinese wedding activity is the wedding shooting, well rather pre-wedding shooting. Usually, the couple goes to a professional studio to shoot all kinds of wedding outfits, from western wedding dresses to Chinese ancient outfits, from indoor shooting studios to far touristic areas.

I am really happy that it is finally done, we wanted something really simple and effortless, so we went to a local studio and asked for the most basic package (only indoor and local outdoor), I have to admit it was really fun, it was like that it is your wedding day, but just you two together.

Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to take many pictures about the setup and how it was done, but the below video of someone else on the internet will give you an idea:

Some fun facts about the shooting:

1. The team

The studio put together a team for each couple, the team includes A makeup stylist, a hairstyle stylist, a styling assistant, a photographer, and a photo assistant.

It took one whole day to finish shooting all 5 sets of outfits, the team was with us the whole time. During the shooting, before every picture, the styling assistant would come and fix my hair, the photograph assistant would fix the dress, I just need to smile and pose, what a service!

My Chinese wedding pre-wedding photo shooting

2. Makeup and styling takes as much time as the shooting

First thing when we arrived, I was given the choice to choose the outfit from their huge outfit repository, afterward immediately dragged to the makeup room for the next 2 hours. I have never in my life had that much amount of makeup on my face.

One fun thing is, it is always the lady who chooses the outfit and the style first, and then the team suggests the gentleman choose the style that matches.

3. Your facial expression is not yours

During the photo shooting, I wanted to have our own little creative poses, however, it surprises me that before we actually started, the photographer started to tell us what to do. I rebelled, but then he explained, it would not look good if I don’t do what he told me. sigh!
The whole shooting what I hear is Smile, smile, don’t move, closer…

In the end, when I got the pictures, I saw not myself, but another idiot who is smiling the same way all the time, but yeah, finally it is done.

My Chinese wedding pre-wedding photo shooting

4. The talented photographer

Sometimes when the photographer wanted to shoot a certain picture, the poor assistant had to do some tricks, like help to throw the dress in the air so that the dress is perfectly in the air:

My Chinese wedding pre-wedding photo shooting

I found lots of other pictures online which reveals this kind of techniques:
Technics on Chinese wedding pre-wedding shooting

Technics on Chinese wedding pre-wedding shooting

Technics on Chinese wedding pre-wedding shooting

5. The magic Photoshop

When I got the picture after 10 days, the photos were already photoshopped, they seemed to be over-enthusiastic about the whole “beauty” standard, my arms became thinner, I obviously became taller, whiter(Chinese standard), it bothered me a bit because I cannot help but ask “I think I am missing my two moles on the face!”, now they have some more work to do.

p012

Anyway, it was nice to have something you can look back after some years, but I am annoyed by the fact that sometimes, for commercial reason, the whole wedding thing is overperforming for perfection. I would like to have those photos represent the real moment that would remind me about the time when I look back. I attended a wedding in October, to my great surprise I saw that the wedding photographer even asked the wedding couple to repeat some things (like getting out of the car, offer tea to parents..) because it was not perfect for the video, if this were to happen on my wedding, I would ask madly: is this my wedding or a show?

Behind the scenes:

The first version of outcome:

Some pictures are from the internet
Read more

More about Traditional Chinese wedding:
0. Introduction
1. Wedding decorations
2. Gate crash
3. Tea ceremony
4. Chinese wedding outfit and Chinese sedan
5. Formal ceremony – Bai tang(拜堂)
6. Bridal chamber rituals
7. Wedding Proposal
8. Pre-wedding photo shooting(Behind the scenes)
9. Chinese wedding agency
10. Our wedding lunch menu
11. Our wedding program 1: Fetch the bride
12. Our wedding program 2: The lunch ceremony
13. Our final wedding video

Please subscribe.

Facebook Comments

6 comments

  1. Hey girl. Just at a glance, you look like your sister very much. I should print the screen for you to check it out 😀
    I am so happy that you and Rui finally made the great decision. Sincerely wish you all the best, my dear.

  2. Hi Lin! I will have my wedding(s) next year and I was wondering if we should do the pre-wedding pictures or not. First I thought it would be fun to wear some strange costumes, then I thought it was going to be very tiring and the pictures always look very fake and too photoshoped. Right now I decided to not do it and just get a photographer for the wedding day so he can register the “real deal”… but I might change my mind again, haha.

    1. Hey! I totally agree that it is fake and tiring, but on the other hand, it is also fun to do, It is part of the tradition any way 🙂 you can ask explicitly not to over photoshop. And you will look beautiful 🙂

Leave a Reply