A Tokyo Wedding... Pt 5 The Return

After a suitably long, or was it short time, the proud couple make a triumphant return to the room, once again accompanied by spotlight. This time however, the mood is much more celebratory, and the couple are clearly more relaxed. And yes... that means costume change. It's actually quite common for the newly married couple to change 2-5 times throughout the day, into a variety of different costumes. One example is the replacing of the white kimono for a much more brightly coloured one (the last time to wear this, as a now married woman of higher respectability and reserve). This process is known as o-ironaoshi, or changing colours.Unfortunately (or fortunately for them), they decided to go essentially with the two costumes.

Unlike before, where they spent most of their time seated at the front table (perhaps a good thing for poor S-chan in her kimono), now they were free to move about, going to each and every table to greet their guests.

And here we see a slightly different view, especially of S-chan's gorgeous dress. The thing to note that for the remainder of the reception, she was followed around religiously by a dress-attendant who made sure that the dress was hanging just perfectly. It's perhaps a very Japanese thing, but to be honest if I was S-chan, I'd be a little bothered by having someone semi-permanently stuck to my bottom.

I like this photo... not because it's well posed, or even well constructured... but I love the moment when the new husband of wife suddenly have to work out the tangle of arms... now is it he over she, or the other way around? Sometimes it's the simple things that can be the hardest to adjust to.

Mission accomplished - now it's time to celebrate (boys will be boys).

A photo with S-chan's family. Slightly more reserved, and a bit less air-clapping going on... but no less excited and happy.

Cutting the cake... actually, we couldn't work out to start off with if this was real cake... when it's that large, it's hard to do much "cutting"... but as is often the case, the cutting is really for show. The real cutting's either already been done, or left to the professionals. We enjoyed the cake later on...

Now the moment that we'd been fearing... the big moment for L-kun. The ring ceremony. Of course, removed from the Christian wedding culture/history (although there are many faux Christian weddings in Japan nowadays), the exchange of rings takes on a slightly different feel. We actually were caught off guard a little timing-wise. We were enjoying ourselves, when all of a sudden L-kun was given the rings and gently guided (thanks to one of the hotel staff) through the crowd. Actually, he really didn't need any help at all... he knew what he had to do.

It's been a while since we've been to a wedding here in Australia, but these sorts of ring pillows (and bears) are quite popular in Japan... and indeed Okaasan made the bears and the pillow (nicely done!). I think they're a brilliant idea - but perhaps that's because we had something very similar at our own wedding.

And the thing that surprised me most (and still makes me all warm and oozy on the inside) is that L-kun walked with such a gentle seriousness. I've never seen this side of him before now. And it was truly AWESOME!

And before you knew it, the package was delivered to the target. Bullseye. A happy couple accept the ring pillow.... with a "omedetou!" (congratulations) from L-kun to cap it all off.

I was so proud of our little trooper at that moment. After starting the day off with a bit of a wobble (not wanting to get dressed or put his shoes on), he had got it all together and peaked with a perfect ring bearer performance!

I'd rather foolishly promised L-kun the biggest ice-cream he'd ever had earlier in the day... but now I really wanted to give him a giant treat!

So, with a quick re-adjustment of the rings, before you knew it, they were firmly affixed upon the respective fingers. I am sure that S-chan breathed a silent (internal) sigh of relief. At last.

And with that, the ceremony now felt like it had reached the "official" level... but there was still much more to come.

And one very important thing was missing.... but that will have to wait... till the next post.