Guest guide · 7 min read
Chinese Wedding Red Envelope: How Much to Give
The short answer: enough to cover your seat at the banquet, a little more if you are close to the couple, in an amount that avoids the number four.
The longer answer depends on where the wedding is. This page gives the rule most guests use, the going rates that have been published for three places, and the practical details: when to hand it over and what to write on it.
These are conventions, not prices. Nobody audits the envelopes. If the couple has asked for no gifts, believe them. If money is tight, give what you can — turning up matters more.
The rule most guests use
A Chinese wedding banquet is priced per table, usually of ten, so every seat has a real cost to the couple or their parents. The convention is to give at least what your seat costs, then add to it according to how close you are.
- Colleagues and acquaintances cover the seat.
- Friends give a little over.
- Close family give noticeably more, and often give jewellery as well.
- Coming as a couple? Double it. You are taking two seats.
- Invited but cannot attend? A smaller amount is normal, since no seat is being paid for.
Rough going rates
Only a few places publish anything like a going rate. Where one exists, it is tied to the venue, because the venue sets the price of the table. The figures below are other people’s published guides, quoted as a reference point. They date quickly, so check a current one for the year of the wedding.
United States
There is no published rate. East Meets Dress, writing for Chinese American weddings, suggests roughly $130 to $300 per guest: the lower end for friends, the upper end for close family. That is about what a banquet seat costs.
Hong Kong
Kee Wah Bakery’s 2026 guide gives these amounts per person:
- Chinese restaurant banquet: HK$800 to HK$1,000
- Hotel: HK$1,000 to HK$1,200
- Five-star hotel: HK$1,500 to HK$2,000
- Not attending: HK$300 to HK$500
Singapore
The Money Bees’ 2026 guide to ang bao rates gives, per person:
- Restaurant or club: S$120 to S$200
- Four-star hotel ballroom: S$180 to S$280
- Five-star hotel ballroom: S$280 to S$450
Weekend dinners sit at the top of each range and weekday lunches at the bottom.
Everywhere else
In the UK, Canada, Australia and most other places there is no published figure. Use the rule: estimate what a seat at that venue costs, and adjust for how well you know the couple. If you are unsure, ask another guest what they are giving. It is a normal question.
Lucky and unlucky amounts
- Avoid four. In Mandarin and Cantonese the word for four sounds like the word for death. Skip 40 and 400, and any total with a 4 in it.
- Eight is welcome. It sounds like the word for prosperity. Amounts ending in 8, such as 88, 168, 188 or 288, are popular.
- Even is safer than odd. Weddings are about pairs, and odd amounts are associated with funeral gifts.
- Nine is the exception. It sounds like the word for long-lasting, so 99 or 199 are also given.
None of this is checked. It is a way of showing you thought about it.
How to give it
- Use a red envelope. Never a white one, which is for funerals. Any Chinese supermarket sells them, often with 囍 on the front.
- Use clean notes if you can. New notes are traditional. A cheque is fine where cheques are normal.
- Write your name on the back. The couple will open dozens of identical envelopes later. An unsigned one cannot be thanked.
- Hand it in at the reception table when you arrive at the banquet. There is usually a guest book to sign there too. You do not hand it to the couple.
If the couple has given bank or payment-app details instead, use them. Many couples living overseas prefer it.
Do you also bring a gift?
Usually not. At a Chinese wedding the red envelope is the gift. If the couple has a registry, that tells you they are happy with either, and you can choose.
Red envelopes at the tea ceremony
These are a different thing. During the tea ceremony, the couple’s parents and elders give red envelopes, and sometimes jewellery, to the couple as part of the ceremony. Guests who are watching are not expected to give anything there.
What elders give at the tea ceremony →
If you are the couple
Guests from outside the culture will not know any of this, and will worry. Tell them, on the invitation or the wedding website, what you would like: red envelopes, a registry, or nothing. One plain sentence saves forty anxious messages.
How to mention red envelopes on an invitation →
Questions guests ask
Is it rude to give less than my seat costs?
No. The rule is a guide for people who can afford it. Students, people who have travelled a long way, and anyone for whom the amount is a real stretch give less, and nobody thinks about it.
Can I give a gift instead of money?
You can, especially if you know the couple’s taste well. But money is what is expected, and it is useful: the banquet is expensive.
What do I write on the envelope?
Your name, so they know who it is from. If you would like to add a wish, 新婚快乐 (xīn hūn kuài lè, “happy wedding”) and 百年好合 (bǎi nián hǎo hé, “a hundred years together”) are both standard.
Do we give one envelope as a couple, or two?
One envelope with the combined amount is normal.
The invitation says no gifts. Should I bring an envelope anyway?
No. Take them at their word.
Planning the wedding yourself?
Tea & Vows is a set of five bilingual wedding documents you fill in yourself, including an invitation and a guest FAQ where you can say plainly what you would like guests to bring. Building and previewing them is free.
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