Brief Introduction of Chinese Wedding Customs & Rituals:

Proposal & Betrothal: During a formal meeting between the parents of the prospective bride and groom, they choose an auspicious date as the Betrothal Day. The groom's family presents various proposal gifts, namely the "Grand Gift", that represents fertility and prosperity in Chinese culture. After this, the two are considered officially engaged. 

Pre-Wedding: After the betrothal, both families will send out invitations to their relatives and friends. The bride's family then prepares a dowry and gives a list of the dowries to the groom's family, and prepares household accessories for the new home. The groom's family performs the "setting bridal bed" ritual and decorates the house for the wedding.

Wedding Day: On the wedding day, the two families perform "hair dressing" and "capping" rituals for the bride and groom respectively. Then the groom sets out to the bride's home to pick up his girl, and he will inevitably be blocked at her door by her friends, which is a very traditional custom, and the bridesmaids will play door games with the groom and his attendants. After this, the bride and groom will leave her home to meet the groom's parents for the Tea Ceremony. The wedding date ceremony ends with a feast, which features elaborate a Chinese wedding banquet.

Wedding Night Ritual: The bridal room will have a lit dragon and phoenix candle to drive away the evil spirit during the night of the wedding. The newlyweds will drink wine from two cups tied together with a red string, arms crossed from each other. This is the formal wedding vow in Chinese culture. Then the bride will be offered dumplings boiled half-raw. The pronunciation of "raw" is the same as giving birth to children in Mandarin, an indication of family prosperity.

Post-Wedding: The next morning after the wedding, the bride should get up early and make a meal for the groom's family to show that she is well-nurtured. Three days after the wedding, the new couple will go back to visit the bride's parents.

Double Happiness : Each half of the symbol is the standard character for happiness, written "xi," and pronounced something like "she" in Mandarin. Therefore, two "xi" graphs together represent the wish for the two newlyweds to have happiness together. The double happiness symbol is a special Chinese character used for marital happiness.

Some Wedding Pictures Taken from Jiangsu

Qinhuai River, Nanjing

Couples walk on the red carpet after a group wedding ceremony on boats in the Qinhuai River, in Nanjing on October 1, 2007. A total of 40 couples attended the group wedding that day.

Couples disembark after a group wedding ceremony on the boat

Suzhou – U.S. couple holds the Chinese-style wedding

Wearing Chinese traditional wedding costumes, bride Jennifer and bridegroom Will pose for a photo during their wedding held in Suzhou on July 8, 2005. The couple and their relatives came to Suzhou from the USA to hold the Chinese-style wedding.

Wearing Chinese traditional wedding costumes, bride Jennifer feeds her bridegroom Will a cup of soup cooked with Chinese date and lotus seed, which has gives a blessing to the new couple

Bride Jennifer and bridegroom Will look at each other during their wedding.

Bride Jennifer (C), bridegroom Will (3rd L) and their relatives pose for a photo during their wedding.

Wedding Business in Jiangsu
There are many wedding dress manufacturers located in Jiangsu and different trade shows are held in Jiangsu cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuxi. For instance, Suzhou ASAPBUY Trading Co., Ltd. is a professional wedding dress manufacturer located. Most of its products are exported to America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and Southeast Asia.

2006 Wedding Trade Fair in Suzhou
In two days, 20 wedding dress shops from Suzhou sold around 2,500 wedding gowns, suits and other wedding accessories at an exhibition held at the Shanghai Workers' Palace. Organizers had expected the fair to attract 500 couples each day, but more than 2,500 registered to attend via the website.

Many have scheduled their wedding ceremonies for the National Day holiday in October. On Saturday more than 1,600 young couples, their families and friends poured into the exhibition hall, which holds 1,000 people. The fair received another 1,300 couples the next day.

At the fair, sellers displayed over 1,000 wedding dresses for sale including white wedding gowns, Western-style suits and traditional Chinese suits such as the qipao. The dresses were priced from 100 yuan (US$12.3) to 1,000 yuan (US$123.3), with those priced at 300 yuan (US$37.5) the most popular, according to sellers.