A Japanese wedding

My most valuable memories are seeing my older sister for the first time in her wedding kimono blowing everyone away. In that very moment her beauty was of no comparison. It was the wedding little girls dream about. The bride in the center of attention, the handsome groom joking around to make her smile even more, her loving family close by and this one moment where she slides her hand into her dress and takes out a picture of grandma who couldn't attend. She held it close at her heart. And now she bursts into tears and everyone starts to cry too. It was one of the most precious moments in my life so far. But lets start at the beginning. In the morning everyone was picked up at their Ryokan/hotel and we were dropped at Oumijingu Shrine. We took of our shoes and entered a house. Inside was a waiting room, in which Franziska and Toshi were waiting for us. They were besieged by a flurry of flashbulbs. After everyone's need for pictures was satisfied a parade led by a Shinto priest and the bridal pair directed us to the shrine. Inside the shrine the bride's family and friends sat on the left side directly opposite to the right side where the groom's family and friends were seated and directed to our side. In the middle was the bride pair. We listened to Shinto chants, drums and dances, which awoke everybody's interest more and more. After the ceremony ended and the bride pair drank sake together we were allowed to take pictures and the flurry of flashbulbs was unleashed again. Now we changed the location to the restaurant Higashiyama Sanso. After the wedding ceremony the second part started. Here the bride pair pounded the sake keg and after that a delicious dinner with speeches followed. A traditional Japanese wedding consists of a ceremony lasting about one hour and a second part lasting a total of three hours and that is it. Since German weddings normally last much longer we also had a third part were we had more weddings games and a lot of dancing. The night ended in a karaoke bar.