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Chinese Wedding Gifts

By: Crystal Holman

When considering what is the traditional gift for a Chinese wedding there really are three different answers.

There is a formal Chinese giving of wedding gifts from the groom's family to the bride's family, which is referred to as the traditional Grand Gifts. There are also the Chinese gifts that the wedding guests present and give to the couple. Lastly, there are also the gifts, or wedding favors that the bride and groom give to their wedding guests.

The Grand Gifts are wedding gifts that the Chinese groom's family give to the bride's family after the terms of the marriage have been negotiated and a fortune teller has analyze the date and hour of the bride's birth with the date and hour of the groom's birth to determine if the bride's date and hour of birth are compatible with those of the groom.

Traditional Grand Gifts include the following items: Li Shi Money; jewelries; dragon-phoenix cakes; dried seafood and mushroom and Fat Cai; poultries; fish; coconut; wine or liquor; a Tie Box with dried fruits; raw fruit; Bin Lang; and tea.

The traditional wedding gifts are given over a period of several days and the purpose in the Chinese tradition is for these gifts to be used for ancestral worship.

The traditional Chinese wedding gifts that wedding guests give to the couple are not near as elaborate as the Grand Gifts. These gifts to the Chinese bride and groom customarily consist of gifts of cash, stuffed in red packets or envelopes.

The last type of gift in a traditional Chinese wedding is the wedding favors that the bride and groom give to the wedding guests.

These gifts are usually small items such as engraved silver fortune cookies, sake cups filled with lavender, porcelain tea cups, jasmine flowering tea in silk pouches, bridal coffee scoops, personalized plantable magic beans, candy bags, glass oil lamps, potpourri wedding bells bags, bridal candy flower pots, candy mint tins, and many more beautiful items that Chinese wedding guests can treasure.

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Chrystal Holman recommends these Chinese wedding favors