...along with the father of the groom, who was in charge of one of the little ones:
We ran right into Yuko and her groom on their way to pictures, both who were supposed to look fairly sober, but failed miserably. They looked so excited, and couldn't stop smiling at each other:
In case you're wondering, it took three ladies to attend to that hair-do:
Yuko was a beautiful bride...
We were lucky enough to be considered "family", and attended the private family introductions, and the signing of the marriage contract (I think that's what they were doing anyway):
Afterward, other friend were asked to come inside, and Yuko's friends had on beautiful kimonos (square on the back means married, bow means single) for the occasion:
There were a few last minute reminders of what to do during the actual ceremony:
And we were off in the procession through the shrine to the place where the ceremony was to take place. The bride and groom were led by the religious leaders under a red umbrella:
We weren't allowed to take pictures at the actual ceremony, but here are pictures of the video that was shown later. His family sat on one side of the room, hers on the other. There was much musical chanting, bell ringing and sake sipping, all in Japanese so I pretty much had no clue what was going on the whole time. It was pretty fascinating nonetheless.
Except the rings. I understood that part.
Afterward we all proceeded back through the shrine. It was a bit later in the morning by then, and quite a few tourists lined up to take pictures. I bet they were wondering what the gringos were doing in the Japanese wedding procession.
Yuko's friends were accosted by a group of Chinese tourists wanting to take pictures of them, but other than that the morning concluded without a hitch.
Off to the reception, stay tuned for Part 2...
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