When Jess & Dom booked me to cover their wedding, I did a little happy jig as I do love weddings with mixed cultures and some traditions. In this case, Chinese traditions. Jess & Dom’s big wedding day started at Jess’s parent’s west London home with a traditional Chinese tea ceremony.
Chinese Door Games
Before a Groom can come into the Bride’s parent’s home to ‘claim’ his bride, he has to show his love, worthiness, dedication and commitment to her by participating in door games. In this case, they were games in the garden with a big audience, all laid on by Jess’s Bridesmaids who put Dom and his best man though some equally tortuous and embarrassing requests to ensure he was worthy of his beautiful Bride.
Amongst other things, they had to eat raw chillies, stuff as many cream crackers (without any water) into their mouths as possible, and even re-play that famous ‘Lady and the Tramp’ scene by eating sweet spaghetti (and only just avoiding the kissing bit!). Lastly, and to top it all, they were forced to dance the Macarena and pay lots of money in traditional red packets to gain entry. Little did Dom know, but Jess had a bird’s eye view from her upstairs window of all the antics down below, and after all the fun and games, Dom was finally allowed in and the tea ceremonies began.
Traditional Tea Ceremony
Wearing a beautiful traditional Chinese red wedding outfit, Jess made her entrance with Dom who’d recovered slightly from all the embarrassing fun, and they were then warmly welcomed into the ceremony together by their eagerly waiting guests.
The serving and drinking of tea is a sign of respect and acceptance in Chinese culture so it was important for them to honour this long tradition particularly on their wedding day, so both Jess & Dom’s sets of parents were there for the tea ceremonies. Tea was duly served to the elders and red packets with money exchanged for luck. There were a few and this is no time to rush.
Off to Pembroke Lodge for their wedding
After the ceremonies and some nibbles, Dom headed off to Pembroke Lodge whilst Jess then changed into a her white wedding dress before making her way in her wedding taxi with Dad, ready to get married. I’ll post the rest of their wedding day in my next blog! For now, here are some shots from the first part of their day. Thanks for stopping by!
