Wedding Guide Asia

To some of us, when we think of a Chinese wedding, images conjure of a big banquet with great food and a long ‘yam seng’. However, things aren’t quite as simple or straightforward as we think. For a culture that is built on tradition and beliefs – it’s no surprise that a Chinese Wedding is steeped in customs (which are very fun I might add!).

Let’s start with the betrothal. What I’ve learned about Chinese wedding customs is that they are very specific. For example, I found that an engagement gift for the bride may include: western and Chinese wedding cakes, two bottles of brandy, an even number of tangerines and oranges, peanut candies for a teochew bride and rice candles for a hokkien bride, at least six tins of canned pork legs or a whole roast pig for a Cantonese bride, and lastly, betrothal jewelry from the groom’s parents to the bride. (more…)

The tradition of throwing rice at a wedding ceremony symbolises fertility but it can be messy and has a knack for causing nasty slippages. Consider instead these environmentally friendly alternatives, as suggested by Martha Stewart Weddings: sunflower or bird seeds (make little tracing paper envelopes with slips of paper bearing your names and fill them with the seeds), rose petals (turn paper doilies into charming cones filled with coloured rose petails) or even tiny daisies (pop them into little fabric pouches that guests can reuse to store jewellery). They not only make green sense, guests will also be charmed by the effort you put into them.