Chinese weddings are truly special. I’ve been to weddings in many different countries, but the one we attended in Shanghai had quite a few surprises. The ceremony took place at a resort hotel in Shanghai. Interestingly, not all guests were required to join the ceremony—some only came later for the banquet dinner, which is quite different from German weddings, where the ceremony and the party are more tightly connected.
Before dinner, we were invited to “afternoon tea,” which turned out to be hot water served from thermos flasks with cookies. I had expected something more along the lines of a fancy hotel tea service, so that was a funny cultural twist 🙈. One unique element was the raffle: each guest received a ticket (“lot”) and throughout the evening numbers were called. Emil, of course, picked the biggest box—and we ended up winning… a frying pan! The life lesson? Sometimes the small boxes hide gold.
Another cultural detail: there is no table number 4 at a Chinese wedding. The number 4 (sì) sounds similar to the word for “death,” so it is avoided—similar to how we in Germany might avoid the number 13.
The couple had been filming with a professional crew since early morning (and sometimes even days before). By the time of the banquet, they already had a full wedding film edited and ready to show! This was amazing to see—so different from German weddings, where the photos and videos usually come weeks later.
All in all, it was a joyful mix of tradition, surprises, and cultural insights.
PS: Don’t worry too much about a dress code – you can basically wear what you like. Just avoid white, as it’s traditionally associated with death. Red is the classic wedding color in China, symbolizing luck and happiness. These days, though, younger couples often choose Western-style white dresses too.
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