Well, there was a big fmily discusion last night about our wedding last night. I didn't sleep to well either. My family and Seans family total of 8 people met up for dinner at our favorite restaurant on Friday night.
Questions that arised were, what color is the wedding? Are you wearing a traditional wedding gown, are you wearing a trafitional oriental gown? Why are your colors not oriental tradition, why are you guys having an outdoor wedding, it might rain?
Keep in mind, I just purchased my oriental traditional gown already (see my blog below this one), because it is chinese teadition to do rhis. My FH is caucasion and american. So I will be purchasing another white wedding gown for our outdoor ceremony. More American tradition so he cn be pleased as well, it's his wedding too.
Let me give you some insight on Chinese tradition:
Before the Big Day
1. Before the wedding,
The ritual is that the bride is isolated with her closest friends. In this custom, the bride-to-be symbolically mourns the loss of family and friends. On the big day, the bride is bathed in water which is infused with pomelo in order to cleanse her from bad influences.
2. Chinese Wedding Traditions - The Colors
The color red plays a vital role in the wedding festivities of the Chinese people. Red is considered by then as a bold and lucky color. In addition to this, the color signifies love, prosperity and happiness; therefore, everything is in red when it comes to Chinese wedding customs - invitations, gift envelopes and the bride's dress. It is also important that the symbol for double happiness is placed on invitations, envelopes and venue decorations, and accessories.
3. A New Bed for the Couple
In traditional Chinese families, the parents of the couple usually provide a new bed complete with pillow cases, comforters, pillows and sheets. A night before the wedding, the groom is required to sleep on the bed and a young nephew will have to jump up and down the bed to give luck to the couple. As per the customary, it is said that this practice gives hope on the fertility of the couple and will make them produce an heir soon.
4. Chinese Rituals - The Big Day
On the big day, the couple will need to serve tea to both parents and family and guests. In return, they will be presented with jewelry and money placed in red envelopes.
Without any surprise, the bridal gown will be red in color when it comes to Chinese wedding traditions. Yet, the case is a bit different nowadays. There will usually be three different dresses for the bride for nowadays. The white dress with veil is worn during the ceremony. The second dress is a traditional Chinese bridal dress. It is usually used at the banquet. The last one is called the bride's going away dress. This dress is worn before the bride leaves the banquet.
The feast or banquet is an important part during the wedding. The banquets are to thank family and friends for the kindness they have shown throughout the years. Most feasts will serve a twelve course meal including delicacies like roasted pig and shark fin soup. Sometimes fried rice and abalone will also be served
A post ritual for Chinese wedding traditions and customs happens after the day of the wedding. The bride should wake up early to honor her ancestors. On this day, the bride is formally introduced to the groom's family, relatives and friends. Older relatives will be giving her small tokens. Three days after the wedding, the bride will visit her family where she is welcomed and received as a guest. :
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After all that we are skipping some of the tradition and this has spked up some fury with his and my parents. Sean and I both have wanted our wedding to be pleasant and beautiful with combing both traditions into it and now with us skipping #2 and #3 and wearing the red gown throughout the whole wedding. And the bed thing is not necessary. Sean wants to sleep with his buddies on the night before the wedding and we don't have a nephew to jump on the bed??? Really???
This is all part of having good luck in our marriage and this is the 2000 century. We have chosen yellow and gray for our traditional wedding. Why are we not incorparting red into our American traditional wedding, because we're going with yellow and gray. I didn't want rd for our wedding. Am I wrong? Sean and I are "BREAKING TRADITION!" We have decided that it's our wedding and we don't care about tradition.
- MELONIE & SEAN
