The word 婚礼 is formed by combining two independent characters, each contributing a core concept to create a new, unified meaning. The first character, 婚 (hūn), inherently means "marriage" or "wedding", representing the institution or event itself. The second character, 礼 (lǐ), carries the fundamental idea of "ritual", "ceremony", or "propriety". When joined, they conceptually fuse to mean "the ceremonial ritual of marriage", or more simply, "wedding ceremony", where the whole compound naturally expresses the formal celebratory event surrounding a marriage.