Having worked 6 different weddings in the last year, I’ve seen a lot of
different weddings both big and small and of various cultures. For my first
foray into my experience, I want to highlight the Chinese weddings I have
worked at and the details that the couples incorporated into each of their
weddings to honor their culture.
While all these couples have lived in the USA probably most of their lives and have assimilated completely to the American lifestyle, they all relate back to their Chinese heritage and seek to have special moments at their weddings to showcase it.
Whether it be throwing the bouquet or a tea ceremony with the parents, I
find it beautiful to see the fusion of both western and eastern wedding
traditions. As shown in some of my pictures attached, I’ve seen lion
dancing, Chinese fans as favors, and the brides wearing beautiful
traditional Chinese attire for a part of the wedding. Red is the common
color for weddings in China as it means fortune and good luck, all the
Chinese weddings have incorporated red into their weddings one way or
another to bring that luck.
The most recent wedding I worked at, the bride
had a lot of Chinese speaking only relatives so the wedding programs were
printed double sided with English on one side and Chinese on the other.
Even their wedding officiant was able to say everything once in English and
once in Cantonese during the ceremony and then later for the bridesmaids
and groomsmen speeches during dinner. Thoughtful things like these are what
make a wedding special and help all guests feel included. And then of
course for Chinese weddings, you can’t forget the red envelopes given to
the couple!
I also just learned about a tradition at the most recent Chinese wedding I
worked at- “Door Games” which apparently have become very popular in
regions of China and also are common in other cultures around the world as
well for a soon to be married couple. Door games are led by the bridesmaids
who present challenges to the groom to prevent him from reaching the bride
and he must prove he is worthy with the help of his groomsmen. I found this
tradition very fun and cute, the bridesmaids challenged the groom’s party
to challenges such as doing pushups, eating food from a string and overall
I think it can be whatever the bridal party wants it to be but it is great
to see the creation/ incorporation of fun cultural traditions in weddings!
The bride also left her home with suitcases, a chair and an umbrella as
symbolic items for “leaving her parent’s home” to go to the groom’s.
Although I grew up in a Chinese household, my parents did not teach me
about many Chinese traditions and I never attended any Chinese weddings
growing up so these were also very educational experiences for me and
hopefully something I can use in the future in my own wedding!
While these are just a few of the things I’ve seen so far at Chinese
weddings, you can also read more about other Chinese wedding traditions
here: https://www.theknot.com/content/ancient-chinese-wedding-traditions