Chinese Style Asian Wedding Decorating Ideas

In nearly all East Asian countries, especially China, red is the color of happiness, especially for Asian wedding decorating ideas. White, by contrast, is for funerals! A Chinese wedding must include red and ceremonial objects such as candles and attire must exclude white.

Asian wedding decorating ideas should include the tradition of respecting elders and remembering departed ancestors, especially a very important part of Chinese traditions. Set aside a table or altar decorated with white flowers for the ancestors. Fruits, a glass of offertory wine, and burning incense are also usually included.

A beautiful alternative to a unity candle which is very popular in Asian wedding decorating ideas could be to join two altars during the ceremony. Have two small altars on which the couple can kneel, and after the vows, join the two altars together to represent the new union. Have the immediate family members kneel with the bride and groom at the joined altar as a symbol of unity and joining families. Remember that for the Chinese, marriage is more about the families joined than the couple themselves.

They perform a tea ceremony in a private anteroom following the wedding ceremony. In this ceremony the couple serves tea to their parents and grandparents from traditional porcelain set, often with dragons, flowers, or a double happiness design.

One of the Asian wedding decorating ideas is to incorporate the special wedding character called double happiness because it is two xi (joy) characters put side by side and compressed into a single character, it is symbolic of the bride and groom's union and is usually put on everything. The character is gold on a red background.

Among other popular Asian wedding decorating ideas, is having the traditional guestbook, in Chinese tradition it is made of silk. Usually a medium-to-lightweight Silk Square, often embroidered around the edges and always red, guests sign their witness to this cloth with a black pen. The cloth is then carefully folded and stored as a special memento of the wedding. If you really want to be authentic, use a brush pen and ink.

Why not include Chinese traditional instruments like the funky-sounding zither in your ceremony music? Chinese use firecrackers to scare away evil spirits who may want to cause problems later.

When considering any Asian wedding decorating ideas, you will be working with flowers. In most Asian cultures, flowers are not only objects of beauty, but symbols of life, happiness, and fertility. You could use Peony, which is a symbol of spring and renewed life, or an Orchid which is a luxuriant, long-pedaled flower symbol of love and fertility, or a Lotus which represents four virtues in the Buddhist religion: scent, purity, softness and loveliness.

As another Asian wedding decorating idea, consider what the Japanese do. The newlyweds face the guests and light a single high candle on the center table which is symbolic for their unity in marriage.

If you want to follow the Japanese style for your Asian wedding decoration ideas, consider having the bride and groom make an entrance from different doors with drum and flute music are playing. At the reception the bride and groom sit at an elevated table and are applauded by the guests. This is when the wedding march is played.

You can ask marriage officiator or as the Japanese say “The Nakodo” to wave a sacred tree over the head of the couple to keep away evil spirits and to symbolize purification. The tree is made of paper streamers.

At the end of the evening the couple gives the mothers a bouquet of flowers and the fathers a carnation for the lapel, as a thank you gesture.