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What To Wear - Shrine Wedding 2011/4/4 23:24
HI,

My husband and I will be going to Japan for a wedding. We will be walking in the procession to the shrine, attending the shrine service (sitting with the brides family), and then at the reception after.

My husband is wearing a black suit, white shirt and white tie. What should a woman wear? Looking at youtube videos it looks like I should wear black, a conservative dress. Is this correct? Our Japanese friend says we can wear any color we like, but that is not what I am seeing in the videos.

Help! Please let me know what I should wear, we leave in two weeks! Thank you!!
by pirokp (guest)  

colours are fine 2011/4/7 08:49
Your Japanese friend is correct- you don't have to wear dark colours, especially if you are under 50 or so. People don't usually wear patterned dresses or really loud colours to weddings here, but green, blue, pink dresses are common.

I wore a light grey/silvery coloured dress to my sister-in-law's wedding at Asakusa shrine 2 years ago, other people were in rose pink, pale blue etc. The mothers of the couple were in black kimono (with designs around the bottom half), but they are the only ones really who people expect to see in black.

It should probably be getting warm by the time you get here but my advice is to bring something quite warm like a shawl to put over your shoulders- shrines aren't usually heated and it was so cold inside that I was shaking during my sister-in-law's early November wedding- probably it won't be that bad for you but we still get some cold days in April some years.
by Sira (guest) rate this post as useful

Sira is correct 2011/4/12 11:03
Yes, weddings are happy occassions so colors are fine. Your husband should wear the white tie. It is a new tradition.

The reason why you saw the Japanese women wearing black Kimonos is because kimonos are very expensive so most women only have one. Black is more versitile and as women get older they tend to buy black ones because of the increased chance of having to go to a funeral.

Temple weddings are not as stuffy as you think.

Wear something from your culture. Just like if they came to your wedding back home, you would want them to wear a traditional kimono they might expect you to were something more western. As long as you feel comfortable it's fine. No one would say anything anyway.
by snowaterider rate this post as useful

some additional comments 2011/4/13 16:26
snowaterider,

while I agree with most of what you wrote, I just wanted to add some things about the black kimono that you see people wear at weddings.

The mothers of the bride and groom wear a special black kimono, known as Kurotomesode, which are formal kimono that usually have intricate patterns or designs decorating their lower halves. Also, I believe they are typically rented rather than bought.

Black funeral kimono (Mofuku), on the other hand are plain black with five small family crests applied. I don't think you can wear a funeral kimono to a wedding, in fact I strongly suspect that it is a cultural taboo to wear something associated with death at a wedding ceremony, similar to how men don't wear black ties at a wedding.

Here's some pictures:

wedding kimono:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=%E9%BB%92%E7%9...

funeral kimono:
http://www.google.com/images?q=%E5%96%AA%E6%9C%8D&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source...
by yllwsmrf rate this post as useful

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