The tea ceremony for chinese weddings is an important segment of the wedding day when the groom/bride pays his/her respects to his/her new parents-in-law. According to chinese customs, the groom is to fetch the bride home to go thru the wedding rites (i.e. the wedding ceremony), followed by tea ceremony to the groom’s parents. Then 3 days later, the couple will return to the bride’s home to visit the bride’s parents. This is when the tea ceremony for the bride’s parents takes place. The typical Chinese wedding in Singapore will (amazingly) squeeze all these activites into 1 morning!
Over the yrs of producing wedding videos, we’ve seen many ways to conduct the tea ceremony. We find ourselves giving tips on tea ceremony to all of our couples during our pre-wedding consultation sessions. The following are a few industry best practices that we always recommend to couples to facilitate the ceremony.
1) Inform your relatives to arrive 30 mins ahead of your scheduled ceremony time.
I.e. If you plan to have your tea ceremony at 1030am, tell all your relatives to reach you place by 10am. This is will prevent your tea ceremony from starting late due to late-comers. Sometimes you got to tell a white lie….
2) Know the order of seniority.
I.e. Identify who should be served tea 1st, and who follows after. Time is very often wasted when everyone starts giving differing opinions on the order.
3) Prepare the necessary washing and tea-replenishing stuff next to the ceremony area.
I.e. Prepare 1 container for any unfinished tea, 1 big container of clean water for rinsing of tea cups, and have 1 big pot of tea. Have someone to refill spare tea cups while the ceremony is on going, so that fresh tea is always ready for the next round.
4) Employ the appropriate tea serving sequence.
Ok. This gettings a little bit too tricky to explain in plain words. Let’s have some pics to illustrate….
The Slow Method
This is when the groom serves tea to the parents individually, followed by the bride. 4 rounds of individual servings are involved with this method. We’ll always recommend this lengthy method when serving tea to grandparents, and to parents. This method always gives the photographer and videographer more than sufficient chances to capture the all-important moments.
The Fast Method
This is when the couple serves a tea cup together to each parent. As only 2 rounds of serving is involved (compared to the Slow Method), this requires only half the time.
The Very Fast Method
This method involves a tray. 2 cups of tea are placed on a tray and the couple serves the tray. The recipients will pick up their own cup. This method is best used for big families with more than 20 pairs of uncles, aunties and cousins to serve tea to.
We hope these tips will help all wedding couples enjoy their wedding day without a hitch. We also hope photographers and videographers who follow our blog can share these with their wedding couples and make their day. Watch this space for more wedding tips….
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