Absolutely Fobulous

If you really know women, you’ll know that donuts are a girl’s best friend…not diamonds. So if you’re thinking about popping the question, consider this pink glazed donut ring by Tammy Young Eun Kim, an LA-based artist. The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.

Link

Think of this as a mega double date, only bigger.  Last week in Harbin, China, 18 couples tied the knot at a group wedding, which was part of the 28th Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival.  I gotta say, it doesn’t get much more communist than having a communal wedding sponsored by the Chinese government!  Besides the mass nuptials, the event also featured huge ice sculptures that are sure to impress anyone who has suffered numb fingers from building a snowman.

.

.

With divorce rates on the rise, “divorce planning” seems to be pretty lucrative career, at least in Japan. Divorce planner Hiroki Terai takes pride in doing what he does—that is, conducting divorce ceremonies for couples who want to celebrate the end of their marriage. As part of his service, Terai makes sure the couple is transported to the ceremony in separate rickshaws. After the ceremony, instead of telling the groom to kiss the bride, he tells the ex-couple to smash their wedding rings with a hammer.

I must say, nothing brings more closure to a relationship than having your guests witness you destroy your wedding ring.

Link

(Thanks, Andrew!)

But before the divorce, make sure you have a fobby cell phone proposal and McWedding!

Yeah, yeah, so we all know how beautiful the royal wedding was, but I’m sure Prince William’s proposal to Kate Middleton wasn’t as fobulous as this! Who wouldn’t say “yes” to a man who organized a Bollywood-style flash mob on San Francisco’s Pier 39 before proposing? It’s almost like living a real Bollywood love story, complete with a choreographed dancing crowd.

Don’t get too caught up in the dancing and miss actual proposal at minute 4:30!

(Thanks, Priya!)

Fobs are catching onto the flash mob craze! Check out Singapore’s flash mob.

What do you get when you put a mainland China fob and 100 cell phones together? A wedding proposal, duh. Reader Hau sent us this video and said, “I was working on unlocking my girlfriend’s iPhone before work when I saw this. Though if he bought those phones, I’d recommend he spend it on a ring first.”

First of all, hats off to Hau for a total fob move — unlocking cell phones with the help of YouKu (YouKu is the Chinese ripoff of YouTube) videos. Second, totally agree with his statement of blowing that cash on a ring instead. Or maybe save it for their wedding?

I have to admit though, that’s a pretty sweet (albeit geeky) move!

(Thanks, Hau!)

For more crazy fob wedding-related stuff, check out a McWedding, giant tuna wedding cake, and a robot officiating a wedding ceremony.

When I lived in China a few years ago, I noticed that McDonald’s there was significantly classier than those in the US.  They were clean, bright, fresh and — because they were Western — somehow modern.  So it wasn’t unusual for a guy to take a girl to McDee’s for a first date, or for students to chill out and study there for a couple hours.  But starting in January next year, Hong Kong will be taking it up another notch — for about $260, couples can purchase a McDonald’s wedding ceremony package.

Yup, people actually want to get married with Double Cheeseburgers, Chicken McNuggets and good ole Ronald McDonald.  The wedding package even comes with a cake made of apple pie or burgers.  Yum.

“Over the past two years, we’ve started receiving calls from people who want to have a wedding party in our restaurants. There are about 10 calls a month,” McDonald’s Hong Kong director of corporate communications and relations Helen Cheung Yuen-ling told the South China Morning Post. “People said they’d dated here, or met here, and wanted to get married here.”

Hmm… which would you choose: a wedding at McDonald’s or the Apple Store?

Link

As a huge sashimi fan, I am seriously considering this option for my future wedding. However, having a tuna-cutting ceremony isn’t a new trend. Apparently, a company in the Kanagawa prefecture in Japan has offered tuna-cutting marriage ceremonies for about 10 years now. The minimum cost to have a giant tuna at your wedding? 150,000 yen (or $1,671) for 50 guests.

Link

Unsure of your religion? A simple solution would be to get a robot to marry you and your loved one. This Japanese couple decided to have I-Fairy, the 4-foot pigtailed marrying contraption made by Kokoro Co., help them cement their vows in Tokyo. Since the lovebirds are involved in the robot industry, they thought that this type of wedding would fitting because robots were what brought them together.

The new husband Tomohiro Shibata, 42, a robotics professor at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, said:

“It would be nice if the robot was a bit more clever, but she is very good at expressing herself.”

You know what this means right? It’s only a matter of time before robots take over our world! Ah!

(Thanks, Sara!)

Link

On November 7, I attended the wedding of Junsuke, my best guy friend, in Tokyo. Boy, are Japanese weddings different from other types of weddings I’ve been to. Suffice to say, it was fabulous seeing him get married to his college sweetheart! I’m happy for him, but when your friends start getting married, it’s a sign that we’re all getting older.

Some cool facts about Japanese weddings:

- Their company superiors got the best seats in the house while the family sits at the back of the room. It’s all about hierarchy and treating your guests better than yourselves in Japan.

- The after party is called the “second party,” and the bride almost always wears white.

- There is folk dancing involved in the after party.

- Their friends put up performances (e.g. some girls wore cheerleader outfits and did some sort of routine, Junsuke’s best friend, Daisuke, did some lame magic tricks, haha.)

And in the sweetest and most unique act of the after party, Junsuke re-enacted his proposal scene with his wife. All the best wishes to Junsuke and Rika!

Fobs are known for their love for taking pictures and utilizing their creative fob poses, but I have to admit, sometimes their creativity may not translate too well, especially in the case of wedding portraits.

Check out some of the more comical (and rather chauvinistic) wedding shoots here.  Photoshop skills at its best!

Thanks Lydia for the link!