A few days ago, I attended my friend's wedding in Beijing; it immediately reminded me of the wedding which I attended in the UK. Although the final goal is to bring together two people in union, there are stark differences in how weddings are run between the West and Asia. I took some pictures from both weddings so lets take a look and see what these differences actually are..

Foreign weddings are usually held in a church or outdoors, but Chinese weddings prefer to be held in a large dinning room.

I attended a wedding held outside on the grass in Cambridge.

Here is a picture of me with the bride.

——Cambridge Hilton hotel

This is me at the indoors wedding in Beijing.

——JW Marriott Hotel Beijing

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The wedding layout in Cambridge

The attendee chairs are arranged in orderly rows on the grass by the river. Quite similar to concert seating arrangements.

Under the tent and infront of the chairs is the table for the official signing ceremony.

The guest sign-in area: After the signing ceremony, guests come into the dining room where they first sign the guest book.

The wedding layout in Beijing.

In a Chinese wedding, guests are seated around big round tables, 10 people per table. Just like in a restaurant.

At the front of the hall, there is a grand stage. Either side of the stage there are two big screens to show the presentations and prepared videos. It's like a live show.

The guest sign in area: Just outside of the dining room there is a long table for guests to sign their name and for the couple to receive gifts (usually cash!). The sign in area is usually at the entrance of the dining room.

Opposite the sign in area, there is a wall with wedding photos of the bride and groom. Guests can take pictures with the bridge and groom here as well.

These are pictures from another wedding. Sometimes the background wall itself is used as the guest sign-in book.

Most western weddings are small in size. Normally the guests are close friends and relatives. The bride and groom will put more emphasis on sharing their feelings and being romantic. However, Chinese weddings are usually very big events. Most attendees at these weddings will not know most of the other guests. The host of the wedding will also try to keep the atmosphere lively and pay less attention to the making it romantic. These are the clear distinctions that i've experienced personally from attending weddings in the West and in China.