1/ Chinese Wedding Banquet
A Chinese wedding banquet is usually held at night at the hotel of the couple’s choice. Guests are to sign in the guest book, drop their wedding gifts (in the case of Singapore, red packets or Ang Bao) and mingle with the rest of the guests at the reception. For the Ang Bao rates, please see #2 below.
There will be about 8 to 10-course dinner where each are considered symbolic in Chinese culture, like the whole fish for abundance, and sweet lotus seeds for dessert, which symbolizes a wish for fertility. Both the bride and groom change clothing between the third and sixth courses.
Check out topic # 3 on what to expect on a Chinese Wedding Banquet Dinner.
Part of the program is a drink toasting otherwise known as the “Yam Seng”. After the couple has popped the champagne, their relatives and wedding entourage will be asked to join them on stage for a toasting session. Everyone is expected to shout “yam seng”, usually three times, at the top of their voices with “Yam” being said longer as “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam” followed by a short “Seng”. It is said that the longer you say “Yam”, the better it is for the wedding couple.
There will be a second round of “Yam Sengs” when the bride and groom make the rounds and greet guests at their tables.
Check out our dinner banquet programme on the actual day here.
Wedding Ang Bao 
Reception (to drop Ang Bao)
2/ Wedding Ang Bao (Red Packet)
The cash gift for the bride and groom. The amount usually follows the standard Ang Bao market rates.
How much should I give for my Ang Bao?
Below are the Ang Bao market rates for Chijmes Hall as of 2019:
For more information on Ang Bao rates, check it here.
If you have more questions about Ang Bao, click here.
3/ Chinese Wedding Banquet Dinner
For VIP tables, there will be a server who will portion the meal for each guest seated. It is slightly different from the guests table, where the server will portion some dish (like soup, noodle and dessert) but will serve the entire dish plate for sharing in the middle of the table on top of the lazy Susan. These dishes are mostly the appetizer, seafood, fish, vegetable and poultry. Everyone is expected to get from the serving plate on their own.
Sample video of a Chinese Banquet:
Our wedding banquet dinner is an 8-course meal. Please click here for the menu. (subjected to changes).
4/ Tea Ceremony
Is a ceremony of a formal introduction to everyone and to be accepted into the family.
In tradition, the bride and groom will first pay respects to groom’s family in their home by serving them tea and addressing them by their formal titles. In return, his family will acknowledge her place in the family and offer them blessings for their happy union. The bride and groom then return to her home for another tea ceremony to pay respects to her family. But before she does that, she will change into the traditional Chinese wedding dress, the “kua”.
There are rules and sequences governing the tea ceremony, like using the tea set included in the dowry basket and tea brewed from longans and red dates for the ceremony. The longans and red dates in the tea symbolises the birth of children early in the marriage while the sweetness of the tea represents the sweet relations between the couple and their families.
For us, we will be doing the ceremony a day before the wedding on Feb 23rd. Both the Bride and Groom side will do the ceremony in one location (TBA).
“We don’t like what we don’t understand, in fact, it scares us, and this monster’s mysterious, at least…”
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