Mr. C and I made a trip down to Chinatown last week, and spent a couple of hours looking for shops that sell traditional Chinese wedding items. More specifically, shops that sell things required for 过大礼 (literal translation- 'going through a big procession' but it actually means "Betrothal Day"). Essentially, it's a traditional custom to hold this about 3 weeks before your actual wedding day.
Just very briefly, the groom's family will prepare a basket of gifts to give to the bride's family. Some mandatory items include a pair of dragon and phoenix candles, a pair of lamps, meat, wine, oranges etc. all depending on the dialect group (teochew, cantonese, hokkien) of the bride's family. The whole process of the 过大礼 is very tedious and longdrawn, it even includes laying out the matrimonial bed in red covers and having young male children jump on the bed to signify fertility and the bearing of male offspring.
To me, this is all a whole lot of baloney. I'm not sure I want anyone jumping on my bed. And also, everything is red (and not even a nice shade of red but the garish kind) and this scares the bejesus out of me. I am not denouncing the traditions and customs of my ancestors as all these were important symbols in those days, but now in modern times, I just want to bring it a few notches down.
Mr. C and I were looking for a nice teapot set with traditional prints for our Tea Ceremony. Something similar to the set seen below:
We walked around a couple of shops but we were unable to find a teapot that we both liked. Time was also running short because we had to rush off to Feline Bridal to do photo selection. We ended up buying other little things like the traditional paper-cutting for 双喜 (the double happiness symbol) as well as several red packets (angbao) that we will have to give out on our big day itself to our helpers.
Honestly, those shops that sell the 过大礼 items really, really scare me. It just looks eerie instead of happy, which is what the red color is supposed to signify.
Many of the stallholders were quite superstitious and were very into the whole ceremonial idea whereas all we wanted to do was to pick up some small items and not buy into the whole thing.
Anyway, here's what we bought, the traditional paper-cutting (1 cutting is of the dragon and phoenix pair and the other is a pair of mandarin ducks) that we would like to stick on our doors:
Small stickers with gold glitter trimming to be put somewhere on our desks:
Red packets to be given to our helpers (groomsmen, bridesmaids, drivers, decor people etc.) seen below. Each design came in a pack of 5 and cost only about S$1.50. The one on the extreme right cost S$2 for a pack of 5 due to the gold trim and delicate embossing and is my favourite design. I regret not buying more of those. Anyway, I was thinking of giving the middle packet (pink) to my bridesmaids, perhaps Mr. C can give the gold ones (2nd from the left) to his groomsmen. The smaller pink packet on the right will not be used (for now I think) as it was only purchased for it's cute factor!
Many of the stallholders were quite superstitious and were very into the whole ceremonial idea whereas all we wanted to do was to pick up some small items and not buy into the whole thing.
Anyway, here's what we bought, the traditional paper-cutting (1 cutting is of the dragon and phoenix pair and the other is a pair of mandarin ducks) that we would like to stick on our doors:
Small stickers with gold glitter trimming to be put somewhere on our desks:
Red packets to be given to our helpers (groomsmen, bridesmaids, drivers, decor people etc.) seen below. Each design came in a pack of 5 and cost only about S$1.50. The one on the extreme right cost S$2 for a pack of 5 due to the gold trim and delicate embossing and is my favourite design. I regret not buying more of those. Anyway, I was thinking of giving the middle packet (pink) to my bridesmaids, perhaps Mr. C can give the gold ones (2nd from the left) to his groomsmen. The smaller pink packet on the right will not be used (for now I think) as it was only purchased for it's cute factor!
Mr. C's parents will also be giving my family some traditional Teochew wedding cakes. I love these types of cakes and honestly, I can't wait to sink my teeth into them!
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