Tea Ceremony Guides
Guides for couples planning a Chinese wedding across two languages — and for the guests who have been invited to one.
All free to read. None of them will tell you what your family must do; that is a conversation to have with your family.
Start here
The Chinese wedding tea ceremony, step by step
When it happens on the wedding day, who is served and in what order, what actually happens, and how families adapt it. Start here if you have not planned one before. · 9 min
Chinese wedding tea ceremony script and running order
A running order you can adapt, sample lines a host actually says in both languages, and realistic timings for how long each part takes. · 7 min
Chinese wedding invitation wording
Wording you can copy, the three ways names and titles go wrong on a bilingual invitation, and how to raise the subject of red envelopes. · 7 min
Chinese tea ceremony etiquette for guests
What to wear, whether to bring anything, when to stand, and whether you can take photos. For anyone who has been invited and is quietly worried. · 5 min
More guides · newest first
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Chinese Wedding Traditions and What They Mean
The main Chinese wedding traditions in the order they happen, what each one means, and which ones couples today keep, adapt or leave out.
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How to Plan a Chinese–English Bilingual Wedding
How to plan a wedding in Chinese and English: invitations, the ceremony, speeches, signs and your website, without saying everything twice.
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Chinese Family Titles for the Tea Ceremony
What to call each relative at a Chinese wedding tea ceremony: parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles in Mandarin and Cantonese, with pronunciation.
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Chinese Wedding Red Envelope: How Much to Give
How much to put in a red envelope at a Chinese wedding: the cover-your-seat rule, lucky numbers, and 2026 going rates for the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.
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Double Happiness Symbol (囍): Meaning and Use
What the double happiness symbol 囍 means, how to say it, the story behind it, and where it belongs at a wedding: doors, invitations and red envelopes.
When you are ready to write your own
Tea & Vows turns all of this into five documents with your own names, date and venue, in both languages. Building and previewing them is free.
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