Chinese Wedding
Betrothal Gifts

Now that you have done with formal proposal and birth dates assessment, it is time to find out what you have to do next. Yupe! It is time to prepare betrothal gifts. Remember: They need to be delivered up to a month or at least three days before the wedding day.

Betrothal ceremony is when two families officially acknowledge the marriage and give their blessings. An astrologist will be consulted to look up the auspicious date, and then, the groom, his relatives and matchmaker will deliver the gifts to the bride's family.

It is important to keep in mind that the total number of gifts must be in even number as it means good things double. The betrothal gifts usually include grand money ^ (聘金) wrapped in red envelope and the following items.

Traditional Chinese Wedding - Betrothal Gifts

1. Special Wedding Couplets (Jie Hun Xi Lian 结婚喜联)

It should be posted on the entranceways to home before the hair combing ceremony (more details on hair combing ceremony to be discussed in our upcoming blogs) and it can be taken down after a month from your wedding day. When choosing couplets for wedding; please make sure you get the correct couplets for the bride's and groom's family. Both families will be getting different couplets (which carry special meaning). So, let the expert does it for you!

2. A Pair of Double Happiness Stickers (Shuang Xi 双囍贴纸)

3. Four sets of Dragon & Phoenix Candles and Incense, including the one for Hair Combing Ceremony. (龙凤香烛)

4. Chinese and/or Western Wedding Cakes (中西式礼饼)

It is also known as Happiness Cakes and Dragon & Phoenix Cakes (喜饼/龙凤礼饼/嫁女饼). The total number of wedding cakes has to be in even number. Chinese presumes even number as the lucky number and should be used on festive events such as wedding.

5. Two Pairs of Gold-colored Coconuts with Double Happiness Stickers

Coconut is pronounced as "ye zi" in Mandarin; sounds like grandfather ("ye") and son ("zi"). It is used as wishes/omen of fertility for the newlywed.

6. Two Cans/Packs of Tea

Tea is planted with seeds, therefore, presenting tea as a gift implies that the family will have more seeds (offsprings) in future.

7. Four Peking Dried Fruits (四凉果)

May choose from any four items listed here:
Dried longan (龙眼), Lychee (荔枝), Walnuts (核桃干), Shelled Peanuts (连壳花生), Lily Bulbs (百合), or red dates (红枣).

8. Dried Seafood (海味)

May include four, six, or eight different kinds of seafood, including sea cucumbers, clams, dried shrimps, squids, shark fins, mushrooms, and etc. Also, it is important to include an edible moss long thin black threads, which known as fa cai in Chinese (发菜). It symbolizes fortune and prosperity.

9. Fruits (生果)

"Sheng Guo" - "Sheng" used to express liveliness for the newlywed (取其生生猛猛之意). The total number of fruits is 12, 18 or 36.

10. Fish

11. Poultries

Two Chickens/Roasted Ducks (two males and two females), and 2-4 kilograms of Pork.

12. Four bottles of Wine or Liquor

13. Gift box (贴盒)
It includes grand money (聘金), lotus seeds (莲子), lily bulbs (百合), cypress (扁柏), betel nuts (槟榔), sesame (芝麻), red beans (红豆), green beans (绿豆), walnuts (核桃干), dried fruits (四凉果), red strings (红头绳), two pairs of dragon-phoenix bangles (两对龙凤镯), and a pair of wedding couplets (一对喜联).

^ Grand money taken as a token for the bride's parents for letting the man to marry their daughter. The groom's family usually prepares $99, $999, or $9999 (depending on their financial capability) for the grand money because number nine (9) symbolizes forever ("Jiu") in Chinese. They are giving their blessings to the upcoming wedding.

Too much works to prepare all of the above?
Wondering if there is one-stop wedding service company out there who will be able to provide expert tips as well as the preparation works for the busy brides and grooms?

Thanks to the creative talents in the wedding market, one-stop wedding services providers are no longer short of in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

One-stop Wedding Services, Malaysia

Xilinmen Auspicious Services
囍临门结婚服务专门店

L-01-06, Block L, Jalan PPK 1,
Pusat Perniagaan Kinrara, Taman Kinrara, Seksyen 3, 47100 Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia.

Phone: (603) 8075 4959
(6012) 232 8978
(6016) 238 8978
Fax: (603) 8075 4959

Email: winnie@xilinmen2u.com
Web: www.xilinmen2u.com

Contact Person: Ms. Winnie


Happy Wedding Enterprise One-stop Wedding Services
喜洋洋结婚礼品专门店

568-1-3, Complex Mutiara, 1st Floor Jalan Ipoh, Batu 3 1/2, 51200 Kuala Lumpur.

Phone: (6016) 271 1176
(6010) 381 6733

Contact Person: Ms. Anna Wong


One-stop Wedding Services, USA

ChinaBridal.com
733 S. Atlantic Blvd. Monterey Park, CA 91754 USA

Phone: 1 (626) 205 3098

Email: shop@chinabridal.com
Web: www.chinabridal.com




Next, we will have dowry list and bridal bed installation topics coming up.

Stay tune,






Credit:
Betrothal Ceremony and Gifts, Happily Ever After Trading, http://francisleong.com
Traditional Chinese Marriage Proposal and Betrothal, China Bridal, http://www.chinabridal.com
Chinese Wedding Custom, http://www.theredwedding.com
Chinese Customary Wedding, http://www.redbliss.com.my
Malaysia Wedding Handbook, 2007, Sky Publisher
Flickr Photos, http://www.flickr.com
Life Pixels, http://yungyaw.net
Lian Bee Bakery, Malaysia, http://www.lianbee.com
Kee Wah Bakery, Los Angeles, http://keewah.us
Wing Wah Bakery, Hong Kong, http://www.wingwah.com