1 Selecting an Auspicious Wedding Date

In China, anytime a big event, such as moving house, opening new business, replacing a
figure of god and certainly holding a wedding ceremony, people will surely go for a fortune
teller as know as Fung Suey teller to figure out an auspicious date in the wish of everything
goes smoothly and no one offends any god or evil spirits.
In this wedding case, the auspicious date will be based on one’s birth date (year, day and
hour),zodiacs and the year’s figure, all those elements or even more needed to be taken
into consideration in charting out a auspicious date for the newlyweds.

2 Traditional Chinese Wedding Invitations

The typical Chinese wedding invitation is red, placed in a red envelope, and usually has gold,
vertical wording read from right to left with the groom’s information presented first before
the bride’s. The invitation also usually includes the following – Chinese calendar dates for
the wedding banquet, order of birth and names of the bride and groom, names of the
parents, dinner venue, time for the cocktail reception, and time for dinner. The double
happiness symbol is usually found somewhere on the invitation.

3 Wedding House Decorating

Different from the west preferring white rose, Chinese prefer red-colored flower like red
rose and colorful lily or peony for their wedding decoration process. Others like hanging the
double happiness symbol in the house, placing the dragon and phoenix candle in bedroom
and dragon and phoenix couplet on the front door, both meaning having good relations
between the newlyweds. The key part is installing the newlyweds’ bed, a propitious hour
and a ‘good luck woman or man’ is selected to do this. When it is done, children were
invited onto the bed as an omen of fertility.

4 Chinese Wedding Dress

In the past, Chinese wedding dresses were mainly Zhongshan suit or Mao suit for the groom
and Qipao for the bride. The main color would be red because In Chinese culture, red
symbolizes happiness, prosperity and good luck .The dresses would be also decorated with
embroidered dragons and phoenix or peony flowers for wealthy wishes

5 Chinese Wedding Day Ceremony

On the wedding day, the groom will set out to the bride's home in the morning and will
inevitably get blocked at her door by her families and friends. The bridesmaids will play door
game with the groom and his attendants . Example of door game and their meaning are
following;
Game of Hiding and Seeking Bridal' s Shoes
the bridal friends should hide her shoes and making it is not easy to find by them. This is
mainly about taking their beloved bride away is not an easy mission and will teach the
groom to treasure her in future.

Bride's Feet should not Touch Ground

After the groom found her shoes and wear it for her, he should carry her to his car avoiding
her feet touching ground. This is about avoiding bad luck.

6 The meaning of a Chinese wedding tea ceremony

In China, serving tea when guests come is a very traditional propriety. It is a significant way
to show respects. In a wedding, such an act is to show respect and gratitude to parents for
all the years of love and care.
A tea ceremony also meaningful in many other ways. It's a symbol of purity, stability and
fertility. The purity of tea signifies the love is pure and noble; the stability of tea stands for
faithful love; the fertility of tea means that the new couple will have many children.

1 Organise positions (P)

during a Chinese wedding tea ceremony, the groom should stand on the right and the bride
should be on the left side. Their parents should sit on chairs and wait for the new couples’
kneel and tea serving.

2 Communicate order of serving:

The order of serving tea is very important. It shows how the couple respect their seniority.
The parents will be served first, then the grandparents, grand uncles and aunts, uncles and
aunts, and then elder siblings.

What kind of Chinese tea is suitable?

some traditional Chinese black teas are preferred because of the good sound of their
names. Here's a list of teas that we recommend:Tie guan yin, oolong tea
Jin jun mei black tea and Pu erh tea

Use A Teapot Ceremony Set

Parent and groom bride will giving both side a gift normally is angpau with money or
sometime have some jewelly
7 Chinese Weddings
Decorations :
Decorations in the hall will usually involve 囍 the "double joy" character, reserved solely for
matrimonial usage. Colors are red and gold mostly, and banners with wishes in various
different phrases, will also be hung on the doors and windows of the venue in order to wish
the new couple well.

Flowers :
Flower are used to decorate tables at Chinese weddings, in a similar way to Western
weddings. Lilies are the type of flower most commonly used for weddings as the Chinese
name for lilies, baihe 百合, sounds similar to a common idiom that means 'happy union for a
hundred years', bainian haohe 百年好合. This flower also has another connotation, as it is
known as the flower that brings sons to the happy couple. Orchids are also used at times, as
they represent a happy couple, love, wealth and fortune.

Food for Chinese Weddings :

Traditional wedding foods vary depending on geographic location. Usually, the Chinese
wedding couples will serve their guests the best dishes that made from the best ingredients
they can offer during the wedding banquet. They also served foods with lucky meanings:

Lobster and chicken: These foods represent yin and yang, the groom and bride.

Scallops: The name of the scallop in Chinese is a homophone for the phrase “raising or
bringing a child into your life,” so scallop is usually associated with wishing the wedding
couple to have a baby soon.

Abalone and Sea cucumber: Abalone is associated with the word “abundance”
while sea cucumber means “good heart” in Cantonese. Chinese couples like including these
two ingredients in the wedding banquet because they symbolize abundance and the love
needed to avoid conflicts.

Whole Duck: In some parts of China, whole duck is a symbol of fidelity and represents
peace, unity, and completeness in the marriage.

Noodles: Noodles have always been a symbol of longevity in Chinese culture. They
symbolize a long and happy marriage.

Fish: Fish is also an ideal food to serve at the wedding banquet. The word "fish," in
Chinese, sounds identical to the word for “abundance."
Alcohol
The groom will walk around the tables greeting guests and taking shots of baijiu, traditional
Chinese rice-wine, with the guests. At many weddings, however, he will sometimes sneakily
switch to water after a few shots as baijiu is very strong. The men attending the wedding
will have to take a drink with the groom.

Colour :
Traditionally, Chinese weddings are very different from Western weddings even just in
terms of colors.

Red plays a vital role in Chinese weddings, because this color is associated with success,
loyalty, honor, fertility, and love, amongst others. Because of this, decorations at Chinese
weddings are generally in red, and so is the bride's dress.

Gold is also commonly used, as it portrays wealth and fortune.

White, however, is commonly associated with funerals, so not used. Dark colors, such as
black, gray, and dark blue, are also best avoided. Read more about lucky and
unlucky colors

Gift :
As visitors to the wedding, you usually will give a red envelope to the bride and groom, with
money inside it, especially in number “sixes”, ”eights” and 'nines' as they symbolize” well”,
“wealth” and 'forever' .Make sure you do not put anything in multiples of four, as four is an
unlucky number for Chinese.

Ceremonies on Chinese Wedding Reception

The banquet starts with a brief elaboration of the newlyweds ‘ love story’ by the host, then
it is the parents’ appreciation speech for everybody’s attendance. Then the groom and bride
will be invited on stage. They will change wedding rings and vows, drink cross-cupped wine
for the meaning of share joy and sorrow. In some region, the bride and groom will bow
three times on the stage. The first is to bow for the heaven, the second is to their parents
for raising them up and the third is to each other for the respect in marriage life. Then the
groom and bride should call their mother and father in law as mother and father, by then
the two families are considered united formally.
All those ceremonies are conducted by a professional wedding ceremony host. In the end
the bride will throw her bouquet to her bridesmaids, similarly to the west whoever gets it
gets married next. After the wedding banquet, close friends and relatives stay and play
tricks on the newlyweds as a way to extend good wishes.