They began their reception in trendy American wedding attire. Photo Source: Baltazar Photography

They celebrated Jocelyn's Chinese heritage by wearing trendy traditional Chinese attire. Photo Source: Baltazar Photography

They changed into trendy traditional Korean clothing. Photo Source: Baltazar Photography

Then Jocelyn wore another Chinese dress with the traditional wedding red color which represents good luck, while David wore his suit. Photo Source: Baltazar Photography

When the dancing started, David flaunted his belt buckle and sneakers ........ (Photo Source: Baltazar Photography)

..... while Jocelyn rocked out in her party clothes and notice the shoes! (Photo Source: Baltazar Photography)

The couple was busy with the many wardrobe changes during the reception but it was worth it to celebrate and honor all three (American, Chinese, and Korean) traditions. Congratulations Jocelyn and David! Now newlyweds in NYC. :O)

More pictures of their wedding and reception to come!

presents

Celebrate Your Culture

by Amanda

When planning a wedding, some of our clients come to us with specific cultural tea ceremony requests from Chinese Tea Ceremony to Paebaek Ceremony (Korean ceremony) to many others.

Above is a collage of several Paebaek ceremonies that we helped produce. We love seeing the Paebaek ceremony unveil…. it’s full of color and eventful. From paying respect to the honorees and catching dates and chestnuts (symbolizing girls and boys that the couple will have).

A little background on the Paebaek Ceremony:
Paebaek ceremony is a traditional Korean ceremony usually performed at weddings. It takes place after the wedding ceremony and its an intimate event limited to family members. However, modern couples now do this in front of guests as well. For those who have not seen this tea ceremony before, its truly an eye opening experience.

About Our Guest Blogger

Amanda, co-owner of Fresh Events Company, is a talented wedding planner from the Los Angeles area. She delights in wow-ing her clients with her design talents and creating memorable weddings.

So where can you get one? Here are a few places to look:

1. Chinese wedding photo studios such as True Love Wedding (based in New York): these places provide packages that can include all or an a la carte of these services: photographer, videographer, limosine, hair/makeup, and dress rentals. The bride goes in a couple of weeks before the wedding day and pick out the dress.

2. Your mother’s closet…Or your future mother-in-law’s or even your aunties. I’m pretty sure they wore one of these form fitting beauties on their wedding day. Wouldn’t it be amazing to wear the same dress your mother wore 30 or so years ago?

3. Custom tailor shop. I have to admit, those are a bit scarce in the US. You can do some scouting at the Chinatown in your metropolitan area or pay a visit to Asia.  Lai’s Royal Tailoring (based in New York) has been making qipao’s for over thirty years.

Husband and Wife

Luckily for me, my parents were taking a vacation to Asia several months before my wedding.  They took my dimensions and got two dresses custom made for me in China.

Did you or are you going to wear a qipao on your wedding day? Where did you get your qipao?

One of the first and most important thing a couple has to decide on when planning a wedding is THE DATE. For me, that was the key to my continued happiness with… my mother. I have been cautiously warned by my sister (who got married 2 years ago) if there was anything she can replan, it was her date. Let me explain. She and her husband had picked the Fourth of July to join in matrimony. However, my mom was adamantly against that date because it was not an auspicious date. So now, everytime there is a small mishap in their household (like the toilet clogging) or some misunderstanding between husband and wife, my mother would remind my sister that its because she didn’t get married on an “auspicious” day.

So what are auspicious dates, where do they come from and how do we pick one?

Auspicious dates are precasted in the Chinese almanac call the Tong Shu, which a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years. This book was very popular among Chinese families since the Qing dynasty, but not so well known to younger generations nowadays. Other than the almanac, these dates are also printed on traditional Chinese calendars. My parents usually get them from Chinese grocery stores around the new year. For more traditional Chinese families, they would take the groom’s and bride’s dates of birth and times to a master. The master will than calculate a lucky day for the couple.

So after some review of the Chinese calendar with my parents, we picked out a few dates in the Fall of 2009 that fell on a Saturday. We started to venue search with these dates and came back extremely disappointed. Most of the venues have already been booked since it was less than a year away. So we went back and forth from the calendar to venues, and the final date turned out to be Friday, August 28th, 2009. It was glorious for a few reasons:

1. It was an auspicious date, which GT’s grandmother pointed out when we first mentioned it to her. I wonder if she memorized all the auspicious dates ever since our engagment. So both sides of the families were extremely happy.

2. The weather should be cooler by the end of summer.

3. We were able to negotiate a lot more with the caterer since it was a “non Saturday” event.

Bear in mind that although auspicious dates have been a long Chinese tradition, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitiously. GT and I are not too superstitious of many Chinese traditions but we wanted to do this mainly for our grandparents and parents who have strong beliefs about them. We realized that our wedding day is not just about the two of us but really about our two separate families joining as one.

Double Happiness Cake

Did you have your wedding on a lucky day? Or are you considering one?

Something Old:

This is a symbol for the bride’s family and her past before the marriage.  Jewelry is a common “something old”, but some other ideas are handkerchiefs, passed down wedding gowns, wedding veils or other parts from past generation’s wedding outfit.  As a bride, I am going to be wearing the diamond earrings that my dad gave my mom as a wedding gift more than 30 years ago.

Something New:

This is a symbol for the bride’s new life she will soon start. My “something new” is also a gift from my parents, which are the other pieces of jewelry that I’ll be wearing at the wedding– necklace and bracelet. Some other ideas are wedding gown, shoes, or lingerie.

Something Borrowed:

This is something that will remind the bride that her friends and family are there for her should she ever need their love and support. I borrowed a wedding veil from my good friend, Patty who is a recent newly wed.  She is blissfully married to her husband, so maybe some of her joy would be passed on.

Something Blue:

Blue symbolizes faithfulness and loyalty in some cultures. However, it doesn’t quite go with the color scheme of the modern bride’s white outfit. So the most common “something blue” is often the garter since it is well hidden under the dress.  Since we are not doing a garter toss, I bought a pair of lace panties from Victoria’s Secret.

What is your something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue?

Elyse & Brad's Wedding

It’s all about destination weddings this year. In June it was San Francisco, then there was Honolulu! The thought of just going to Hawaii was a dream. Now having a wedding in Hawaii, this was heaven. The wedding was held at a beautiful hotel by the beach in Waikiki called Halekulani Hotel.

The ceremony was in the center courtyard of the hotel.  The bride wore a gorgeous flowing dress designed by the maid of honor, Jeny Lee.  The bridesmaids and she were also wearing a dress she designed.    It was a beautiful turquoise dress that had accompanied the bride’s dress very well.

I loved how the couple incorporated their different cultures during the reception.  Brad is Chinese and to celebrate his culture, there was a lion dance in the beginning of the party.  It is usually performed as a ceremony to summon luck and fortune. Spectators can hand feed “lucky money” in red envelopes into the lion’s mouth to provide the giver with luck. To get the lions started, each table had a dozen or so balloons, which the guests popped with toothpicks to imitate firecrackers.  The lion dance was one of my favorite highlights of the wedding.  I absolutely loved it!

Near, the end of the reception, they celebrated Elyse’s Korean culture with a tea ceremony.  Along with a series of events, tea was offered to both Elyse and Brad’s parents.  After all the formal gestures, Brad picked up Elyse on his back and carried her out! That was so much fun to watch.

Have you been to a wedding where they incorporated different cultures of the bride and groom? Have you ever been to a wedding in Hawaii? Tell me about it.