mr. banana leaf and co.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

my do the days go by quickly! this week for the #tbt #fbf post, i wanted to continue with mr. banana leaf and talk a little more about western and japanese weddings.

あっという間にもう金曜日！時が経つのがすごく早く感じる日々です。今週の #tbt #fbf ブログは、先週に続けてバナナリーフくんウェディングをご紹介します。また、欧米と日本の結婚式についてお話します。

in western weddings, a typical wedding day would proceed something like the following:
● wedding ceremony
● cocktail time
● reception
● dancing
and in most cases guests attend throughout the day.

欧米の結婚式では、ウェディングのスケジュールは次の様になります：
● 結婚式
● カクテルタイム
● 披露宴
● ダンスタイム
そして、1日を通して同じゲストが参加されることが多いです。日本の様に結婚式の『二次会』の習慣はあまりなく、披露宴会場にダンスフロアが設置されそこでお食事を終えたらダンスパーティーに変わるのです。

in japan, the wedding day is very similar except “dancing” is turned into a completely separate event called the nijikai (the after party) and many times is at a different venue. another exception is that it is common for the bride and groom to invite only family and/or very close friends to the ceremony and reception. friends and work acquaintances would be invited to the nijikai. why the separate guest list?:

in japan, it is customary for a wedding guest to bring a monetary gift of 30,000 yen (if $1.00=100 yen, 30,00 yen would be $300). the reason being, even numbers (i.e. 20,000 yen) are considered bad luck since you can “split” the couple in half, not to mention the number 4 is bad luck as it can be pronounced the same way as “death”. of course one may think, “30,000 yen is an even number”, but in japanese 10,000 is 1 man (rhymes with fawn), so 1 man, 2 man, 3 man. if you are family or a work superior the next level up would be to give 5 man. for a nijikai, many times they ask for an entrance fee in the place of a monetary gift. there are many reasons as to how and why a couple separate their guest list, but one big factor could be so as not to burden friends and acquaintances with having to provide so much money.

[WEDDINGS] MR. BANANA LEAF AND CO.
photo provided by the bride

that said, for the mr. banana leaf wedding, they decided to incorporate mr. banana leaf’s friends into the nijikai pamphlet. the inside of the pamphlet opens up into a color coded “map”. the guests were handed different colored ribbons according to how they know the bride and/or groom (friend, work, college etc.) and each color (and a different mr. banana leaf friend in each circle) on the “map” explains its corresponding ribbon color.

そこで、バナナリーフくんウェディングでは、二次会にバナナリーフくんの仲間が出現したのです！二次会では、ゲストに別々のカラーのリボンが渡され、パンフレットには各色のゲストと新郎新婦の関係（幼なじみ、大学時代の友人、お仕事仲間など）の説明が書かれているのです。一つ一つの円の中には、バナナリーフ仲間がいるのです！

THANK YOU!

[WEDDINGS] MR. BANANA LEAF AND CO.
mr. banana leaf thank you stickers for gift bags