What a dramatic day we had!
Several months ago Yanmei was admiring a wedding photo a friend of hers posted on WeChat. She showed it to me, it was done by a studio in Beijing. Since we didn't have a big wedding, I asked her if she wanted to get some photos like that. She said, “a little bit.” We've been together long enough that I know that means she really wants that.
Now that we're in Beijing I suggested we go to the studio to check it out. They seemed pretty good to me, they were willing to accommodate our tight schedule and have us in for photos the next day. We didn't want lots of hard copies or a big album because we can't fit that in our luggage for the rest of the trip, so we just asked for digital copies of the photos. I wasn't sure if they would agree to that, but they did, at least as far as I got from Yanmei's translations. There was a lot of talk that I couldn't understand. Anyway we paid, and the next day we had to go to their studio in a park, different from where we were, which was just their sales office.
The next morning Yanmei woke up late, she didn't have a good sleep. She also had buyers remorse on the photo idea, and felt like the studio was low quality, even though we hadn't been there. She asked why we were wasting money to be uncomfortable all day instead of doing something fun. What a debacle this was turning out to be! How were we going to get any good photos if she was miserable (and therefore I was miserable)? I finally coaxed her out the door about an hour late.
After taking the subway we had to take a small vehicle to the studio in the park. She hadn't mentioned it to me before, but apparently the taxis can't or won't go there so you have to take a scooter or motorcycle. There were a bunch of these waiting outside the subway to take people, I assume they were like unlicensed taxis. We'd probably have to go on separate ones. We didn't like that idea so we settled on a motorized rickshaw.
The rickshaw went into the park, which Yanmei informed me wasn't the one the sales lady promised her yesterday. “This place is terrible.” Looking around at the mounds of garbage I had to agree. We finally got to the studio about an hour late for our 9:30 appointment. They took us upstairs and gave us a locker for our things. I was supposed to bring dress shoes but of course I didn't have any. Yanmei went off to makeup while I waited.
Yanmei came out of makeup a changed woman, both physically and mentally. I told her “You look amazing!”, and she replied “This place is pretty good.” Finally she cracked a smile. 🙂 We picked out our first set of clothes.
As we were taking our first set of photos I could tell she was enjoying herself a lot, posing for the camera. She laughingly complained that the photographer kept asking her to act shy but she didn't know how. She also said she was nervous.
After the first set we had lunch. The second set was outside. They brought me some white dress shoes. Communication was a bit of a problem, because Yanmei was always in a separate area for makeup when I was getting dressed. Eventually someone used a translation app on their phone and it played “do the shoes fit okay?” The length was fine but they were too narrow, but I said they were okay. They were trying to help me and I didn't have my own dress shoes like most customers, and I figured I could live with uncomfortable shoes for a few photos. Mistake.
We took a van to the park, it was the original nice park that Yanmei was promised. Her mood had done a complete 180 and now she was having a lot of fun. The only problem is she would get nervous when posing and put on a fake smile, then after the photographer lowered the camera she would relax and break into a natural grin. I wished I could tell the photographer to take some candid photos when she was smiling naturally, but he didn't speak much English. Meanwhile people in the park were taking pictures of us too. Understandable, the handsome foreigner with his beautiful bride in their fancy clothes. 🙂
Unfortunately for me we walked about a mile into the park to some different venues. Yanmei had high heels to pose in but she brought her regular shoes to walk in. Smart. I just had my uncomfortable dress shoes, which were growing more uncomfortable with each step. Finally we finished and headed back to the studio where I could finally remove the shoes, what a relief!
We did a few more rounds of photos, and had a blast. Yanmei was smiling and laughing so much that by the end of the day her cheeks were sore. It was a long day, by the time we finished up and changed back to our own clothes it was 8:30pm. By this time my toe was bleeding from being in the uncomfortable shoes.
We stopped in a restaurant in a mall to get some dinner, then looked around a bit before taking the subway home. Yanmei started to worry we might miss the last train, but I wasn't worried because it wasn't even 10pm yet and it was a Friday night. As we transferred to line 13 I heard an announcement “The last train to Xizhimen is arriving, all passengers for Xizhimen prepare to board.” That was the train we needed. I looked at my watch, 10:39pm. What the heck? Why is the last train so early? We started running like crazy. I should mention that Beijing subway transfer stations are huge, 5+ minute walks with bridges, tunnels and stairs are not unusual. Ow my poor feet. The rest of the passengers weren't running which made me suspicious, but we ended up catching the train barely. Later we found out there were more trains after that one, but they didn't go all the way to Xizhimen. We didn't need to go all the way either so we didn't need to run.
Finally one last funny thing happened. We got home exhausted, and I went into the bathroom to wash my bloody toe. I closed the lid of the toilet and sat on it to look at my toe. After a few seconds the lid shattered. 🙁 Yanmei thought I might be injured again from plastic shards in my butt, but luckily that was not the case. Only my pride was injured. What a day.
Anyway I'm sure you're waiting for the photos. Unfortunately they are on a DVD and I currently have no way to get them onto my iPad to post. All I have is a handful of pictures taken with my phone.
-David
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