Wedding Planning

• At least 12 months before wedding

  • Arrange for 2 families to meet.
    The meeting is to formally express the intention for a wedding and to discuss the key items below.
    
    
    • Discuss approximate number of guests from each family.
      
      
    • Discuss approximate timing for wedding.
      The actual date will be picked later. Our Good Wedding Date service will give a list of personal auspicious dates and hours for any 2 years.
      
      
    • Discuss wedding style and level of formality.
      Wedding style refers to the formality of the wedding setting. Is the wedding going to be casual in an outdoor setting or in a restaurant.
      
      
    • Discuss wedding customs to carry out.
      For Chinese wedding, the common Chinese wedding customs include delivery of betrothal gifts (過大禮), installing a bridal bed (安床), fetching the bride to groom's house (入門) and tea ceremony (敬茶).
      
      
    • Discuss the contents for betrothal gifts (過大禮).
      
      
    • Discuss who pays for what in the wedding.
      
      
    • Discuss how the red packages are to be distributed between families.
    
    
    
  • Getting down to planning
    
    
    
    • Set budgets for the followings:
      
      • Bridal package
      • Wedding venue
      • Wedding banguet
      • Photography and videography
      • Wedding bouquet
      • Wedding gifts and favors
      • Honeymoon
        
        
    • Draw up guest lists.
      Draw up guest list for each family. Also draw up guest lists for colleagues, friends, etc.
      
      
    • Pick an auspicious date and hour for wedding.
      Pick an auspicious date for the wedding. If the wedding involves Chinese wedding customs, use an auspicious hour to carry out the wedding customs. It is not necessary to have a wedding banquet on an auspicious hour. Our Good Wedding Date service will give a list of personal auspicious dates and hours for you to pick a convenient date and hour for your wedding.
      
      
    • Announce wedding invitation informally.
      You may want to let your guests know that you are going to have a wedding. This informal announcement will help you to gauge the number of guests attending the wedding.
      
      
    • Book wedding venue
      Once a date for the wedding has been picked, the next thing is to identify and book the venue for wedding. Usually a hotel is used as the wedding venue. You may also want to reserve hotel rooms for out-of-town guests.
      
      
    • Decide on food.
      The type of food serve at the wedding banquet depends on the type of wedding. For Chinese wedding, food is usually a 8-course or 9-course meal. For church and outdoor wedding, food can be buffet style meal.
      
      
    • Hire caterer.
      If you prefer food from elsewhere or you have your own wedding venue, you may want to hire your own caterer to provide the food on the wedding day.
      
      
    • Identify bridesmaid and bestman.
      
      
    • Book bridal package.
      The bridal package is an essential component in a wedding. A bridal package offers wedding suit and gown to dress the groom and bride on the wedding day. A bridal package also includes indoor wedding shoot and outdoor wedding shoot.
      
      
    • Hire makeup artists.
      Makeup artists are hired to make up the bride on the wedding day.
      
      
    • Hire photographer and videographer.
      Most bridal packages include indoor wedding shoot and outdoor wedding shoot but not wedding day shoot. You may have to hire a photographer for the wedding day shoot. For those who are not content with just wedding shoots, you may want to hire a videographer to capture the sights and sounds of the wedding day.
      
      
    • Order hand bouquet.
      Most bridal packages also provide hand bouquets for indoor wedding shoot and for the wedding day. However, if hand bouquets are not provided, you can order from a florist.
      
      
    • Arrange for wedding car.
      A wedding car is needed to send the groom and bride to the wedding venue and to fetch the groom to the bride's house and to fetch the bride back to the groom's house. A bridal package may provide a wedding car but you can always choose to use your own car.
      
  
  
  

• 3 to 6 months before wedding

  • Start a keep fit regime.
    To look your best on your wedding day, you may want to begin a keep fit regime.
    
    
  • Order wedding favors.
    If you want your guests to bring something home from the wedding, you can consider giving them wedding favors.
    
    
  • Order wedding cakes.
    
    
  • Plan seat arrangment for guests.
    
    
  • Send out formal wedding invitations.
    
    
  • Shop for wedding rings.
    
    
  • Shop for accessories such as shoes, jewellry, etc.
    
    
  • Arrange for fitting of wedding gown and suit.
    
    
  • Plan wedding day agenda.
    
    
  • Plan how to receive guests.
    
    
  • Plan how gifts and red package are received and recorded. You may want to appoint a trusted person to oversee all these.
    
    
  • Plan how day photographer is to take photo on wedding day.
  
  
  

• 0 to 2 months before wedding

  • Deliver betrothal gifts (過大禮).
    The delivery of betrothal gifts to the bride's house is carried out on a presonal auspicious date for marriage and preferably on an auspicious hour. Our Good Wedding Date service will give a list of personal auspicious dates and hours that you can use to deliver the betrothal gifts.
    
    
  • Arrange for final fitting of wedding gown and suit.
    
    
  • Arrange for indoor and outdoor wedding shoot.
    
    
  • Finalize seat arrangements for guests.
    
    
  • Install bridal bed (安床).
    This is a Chinese wedding custom and is usually carried out any time before the wedding day on a personal auspicious date for marriage and preferably on an auspicious hour. Our Good Wedding Date service will give a list of personal dates and hours for An Chuan (安床).
    
    
  • Finalize wedding day agenda.
    
    
  • Confirm arrangements with various service providers for wedding day.
    
  
  
  

• On the wedding day

  • Fetching of bride (入門).
    The groom is to go to the bride's house and fetch the bride to the groom's house. Tea ceremony is normally held at the bride's house and again at the groom's house. The whole process should be carried out and completed within a personal auspicious hour. If one personal auspicious hour is not long enough, consider using 2 personal auspicious hours that are next to each other.
    
    Our Good Wedding Date service will give you all the auspicious hours which you can use for this Chinese wedding custom. A list of auspicious hours are provided for each personal auspicious date. Planning for this Chinese wedding custom is easy with our Good Wedding Date service.
    
    
  • Wedding banquet begins.
    The final moment has finally arrived. Starts receiving guests! Wedding banquet need not be held on a personal auspicious hour.