What is the wedding like in Shanghai? « My Shanghai That’s Shanghai

What is the wedding like in Shanghai?

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I have been to a few weddings in the last couple of years in Shanghai and just went to another one on Sunday. I found the young couples in Shanghai are really working hard to make their big day special.

The young couples in Shanghai worked out a creative way to combine the Chinese and Western traditions perfectly. Wedding basics in Shanghai includes:

- Enter of the bride and groom
Some couples choose the western way which is the bride walked down the asile by her father and handed over to the groom. But some choose the modern Chinese way which is the bride and groom walking side by side and congratulated by the guests.

- Introduction of the new couple
In western culture, people usually have their wedding in church and a minister will perform the wedding. The Chinese wedding is usually in the hotel and a MC takes charge of the whole process of the wedding. So at the beginning of the wedding, the MC will give a brief introduction of the bridegroom, how they met and their romantic story etc.

- Invite the parents on the stage and the couple thank the parents
This is a must do tradition in China and extremely emotional moment during the whole wedding. The typical scence is both bride and her mother crying together.

-Parents give speeches wishing the new couple a happy life forever

- The officiant announce the couple husband and wife
Usually a VIP who are highly respected by both families will be the officiant to perform the announcement.

- Exchange rings
adopted from western wedding

- Cutting wedding cake or toasts
adopted from western wedding

- Food served and bride and groom get changed

- Bride and groom walk to every table to greet the guests and make the toasts, entertainments usually arranged during this time

Usually the bride will change 2-3 times during the whole process. The young brides in Shanghai usually choose to wear western white wedding gown for the annuncements and rings exchange, but wear traditional red Chinese dress to greet guests and make toasts on table.

The young couples will usually hire a wedding planning company to design and manage the whole process for them and usually will ask the companies to add some personal touch to the basic process to make the wedding unique, such as a video/animation of the couple’s romance, a friendly game to make the wedding more fun for the guests etc.

The guests usually give the red envelopes when they arrive at the venue registration. The new couple will also give a small gift as a return when they leave.