by Ana Choi

Created on: December 08, 2008

Chinese weddings usually culminate in an expectacular banquet, full of culinary symbolism, however the actual wedding takes place before the banquet. We can take note of what we need to wear and what not, but the whole ritual goes beyond that and to understand the faux pas of a Chinese wedding, it's essential to understand and to know about it first.

It all starts the night before the big day, the groom and the bride each one will be at their parent's house and they will be in the company of their best friends, usually the groom will be with his best men called "brothers" and family and the bride will be in the company of her family and her maids of honor called "sisters". If you have been chosen to spend the night with the groom you are considered a great friend and you can bear in mind that after a night out partying out with the boys you will need to wear a suit, which can be black during the morning when the groom goes to pick up the bride, if you're a maid you must take into consideration that you can wear anything except white or black since it symbolizes death. This ritual is one of the most important ones in the Chinese tradition since it is the route in which the groom will go and claim the bride and bring her to his family, in this process, the groom must go to the bride's residence, pass a few "tests" set by the maids of honorhonor the bride's parents in a tea ceremony and the bride will officially leave her parent's house to go to her future husband's house to offer tea to her in-laws. After this the the future couple are usually driven around the city in their wedding costume inside the official car which is decorated with wedding motifs.

After this ritual usually all the best men and maids of honor will gather with the future couple and have a traditional lunch and then they will rest and get prepared for the wedding banquet. For the morning rituals, wear something that's fresh but yet nice so that you can go around with the groom or bride on their rides, keeping a pastel pallette is always a good since it denotes happiness and freshness.

During the traditional wedding banquet, both the "sisters" and "brothers" will be the ones attending the guests at the reception area which will usually consist of a long table where in you hand in your "red pocket" and leave your sign on a red piece of cloth, usually the entertainment before the banquet is mah-jong or karaoke. The "red pocket" is a little bag with auspicious print that contains money, this is a

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