Chinese Wedding Tea Ceremony: Tea Ceremony

» debng - Tea Ceremony

When Bert and I were married a little over a year and a half ago, we wanted to incorporate my husband's Chinese traditions with my own, so our wedding would reflect both our cultures.

When we went to Chinatown to pick out our wedding rings, we took my future mother in law, as she's rumored to be a fierce negotiator -something very useful in Chinatown. Imagine my surprise when she showed me this wall of HUGE necklaces and asked me to pick one for my tea ceremony. I didn't know what to do, these were all so big and my taste is pretty conservative. Plus I didn't want to offend this lovely woman by picking something out that was too expensive or big. The jeweler informed me that both my sister-in-laws had the same necklace, and that Bert's mom would like me to have it as well. The necklace I was shown was the least ostentatious of the bunch. It was actually quite pretty. By this time the whole store was watching me (and not being Chinese, I felt that I stuck out in the crowd, but not much because we were all enjoying our selves.) When my mother in law put the necklace on me, the jeweler called out "now you look like bride!" and the store applauded. I was only slightly mortified.

The tea ceremony was elegant and I never saw so much gold jewelery in my life.The DJ joked that it was called the tea ceremony because my husband and I both came out of the room looking like Mr and Mrs T. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. It meant alot to my mother in law and my husband and I and it's an important tradition meant to be passed down.
P.S. I didn't even spill any tea on my wedding dress!

I wish you lots of luck in the future.

-- posted by debng