I've been best man at two weddings here, and I think that saying that it is awful would be doing a terrible injustice to the ceremony of marriage and the experience of those hopeful people that choose to build their future on that most special of days. No. The truth is it is f**king horrible. Words cannot express how dreadful it is, unless those words are 'it hurts', 'make it stop'' or 'somebody please kill me.' As a best man I had to drink copious amounts of baijiu, as the tradition dictates that the best man carry the weight of the grooms responsibility to drink, which was fine by me until we'd visited the first seven tables (you are required to visit each one), and fine by the groom until I threw up on his shoes. Beyond which it is wholly unadvisable to have an increasingly drunk man follow you around a room full of people who are now to become an important part of your life, particularly if the man in question knows how to say the word 'f**k' in Chinese. Seriously. They should have learnt after the first wedding.

I've never got married, but I've been to a Chinese wedding. My ex took me to a wedding. Be prepared to be stared at. Everybody paid much more attention to me than to the bride. They don't have any bad intentions, don't worry. 

Yes, the bride, groom and best man have to visit every single table. The bride is not supposed to get drunk. The groom and best man get hammered.

It all depends on your background. I'm a vegetarian and most of the food offered was meat,    I didn't eat much.

All in all, it wasn't that special. In my country weddings are freaking wild. People eat, drink, dance, there are all these aunties dancing with their gigantic breasts going up and down, everybody kisses and hugs each other, the band is playing Waltzes, folk music, rock, Schlager. Chinese weddings are nothing. Just try not to lose face and everything will be fine.

The weddings I've been at have all been pretty sad. People come, eat and leave. The only thing going on is the best man yelling something in a microphone only to get too distorted for anyone to understand (or it's because I cannot understand Chinese) then the wedding couple go around and drink will all guests.... and that's it.

Sometimes things are copied from "the west" (which in this case is Hollywood) e.g. I have seen, as part of the best man speech, the married couple drink a glass of champagne. Said glass was poured by stacking a lot of glasses and then pour into the top one. Wow, impressive. Or not. The base of the glass mountain were glued, so only 4 glasses at the top could be taken away. Same thing for a cake. Giant cake with many layers. Only the top layer is actual cake, the rest plastic (or something) 

It's just for show, nothing nice about it. How can you have cake and champagne in front of your guests when your guests have a small cup of tea, a tiny glass of Great Wall "red wine" and some pork and duck in different variations. 

I am used to weddings being a full day event. Church service/civil service, drinks, reception, dinner, dance usually followed by heavy drinking for those who want to. There will be speeches from family and friends etc. Something you would typically need to reserve an entire weekend for. In China, going to a wedding is no different than going to Pizza Hut, except Pizza Hut will give you cake. 

I went to a nice ceremony a couple of summers back in a place called The Orchard in Beijing's suburban Shunyi District. The area reminded me of rural UK - a lovely garden with a pond and a view of rolling pastures outside. They went for a Western theme with the ceremony, and the buffet was great. It was different from other ceremonies I've been to in the sense that it wasn't just about getting plastered, and the bride and groom made it as sweet as possible by preparing photos and a slideshow of all their travel memories. 

I actually like the idea of Chinese weddings. It's a short ceremony, the guests get to eat. No worries about a gift registry. Oh, and if you plan it well, there could be some really great wedding photos. I personally don't want a wedding that lasts all day, talk about exhausting! Maybe I'm just weird.

Just had my ceremony, six months after we had already signed the papers. It started a bit too early for my liking. Yes, there were many people trying to get photo's all the time but I was wearing a kilt so I expected it. She looked so beautiful that it took the focus off me though. We had incorporated a bit of an outdoor western-style ceremony into the proceedings so it wasn't all the chinese style big production that I have seen at other peoples weddings. Ours was lovely. By the end of the day though, we were both so knackered. As for the drinking. I thought that it would be a problem, however, my best man (my best friend) deflected it all from us and kept our small glasses topped up with water. We didn't have to drink even one glass.

I'll find out...In August. 5 star hotel, 300 people, the whole shebang. Her Mom took care of it all... Maybe it will suck, I get to wear the traditional clothes though . My bro will come as well, his first time in Asia. We'll get married in an Orthodox church in my hometown, in July. Her first time leaving China, so it should be an exciting summer!

Quite a strange experience.  You basically stand on a stage for 3 hours.  The bride changes dresses 3 times, during which time the groom can eat.  I don't think the bride has time to eat at all.  Nothing really celebratory about it.  No dancing-it's definitely not a big party, just a lunch.

In the evening you are supposed to throw a dinner for the people that helped you out during the day, mostly relatives.  This is a lot more fun.  You actually know everyone.  They're not some work colleague of your mother-in-law, or whatever.  I actually had 8 friends come over so I invited them to this, as well.  It made it a lot more palatable for me.

All in all, think of the worst wedding you've been to at home. It was probably more fun. Best Wishes!

yeah, it was enjoyable but exhausting. I had a much more elaborate wedding in China than I could have afforded at home.

I was invited to a Chinese wedding before and  was worried about what to wear . I carefully scan my closet and came out with something;so worried that I would be the worse dressed without gift. When I arrived at the hall,I saw everyone so casual with some people carrying their kids in sleeping cloth. Then I turn out to be over dressed.No one was carryings gift  so my soul was saved on that one.The wedding  was not fun at all; not even  the reception. We had duck,pork and some endanger species. Bride and groom visiting every table.when they got on my table,that did it for me because my toast to them caught many eyes and at last red wine spill on my  dress.Goodbye!!! (good timing,something had to take me out of this place!)