Wedding questions/preparation

[Ricky]

Well boys n girls, the time is drawing near.  I plan to make another visit to china within the next 6 months and we have decided we will be getting married on this trip.  So, this opens up a whole new can of worms.  She originially wanted to come to the states and marry here, but now she has changed her mind and wishes to marry in china with her family. I am okay with this, but the question is, where do I start?  I was trying to find a company that would put it all together like we have here in the states, but low and behold, no google search prevails, perhaps because i'm using the wrong search parameters.  Hard to say.  We would be in the Hunan province for sure, and if anyone knows a company there they could direct me to, that would be awesome.  As well, I had a good figure for how much finance I should set aside for a wedding here in the states, but since the change, I am also curious  about how much I will be spending to have the ceremony in china.  Any round figure would be greatly helpful

[ttwjr32]

the price will depend on what you do. how many people at the restuarant
                                                             pictures
                                                             clothes
                                                             gifts for family/coworkers (not talking money here)
                                                             need to do the process in GZ since you married in China
                                                             rings
                                                             album
                                                             red book fees
a lot of guys paid the family some money but i dont know what that costs as i did not have to do that with my family as they have as
much if not more than i do lol!!!!!!!! so you might have to factor that in.

if they want a house then i would just buy a return ticket and start over   lol!!!!!!

and i probably left a few items out but im sure others will add them
                                                       

[Martin]

Where in Hunan Province?  Several members here are married to Hunan women.  I also looked for a "wedding planner" before my trip.  If this is what you are looking for...STOP!  There are wedding shops all over the place in China.  Your lady and her family will take care of all of this for you.  Price wise...I had around 250 guests at our wedding, in a very nice hotel.  We had a convoy of 8 vehicles, and also had the entire thing filmed.  Total cost was under $4000 Canadian.  I can't remember the exact price.  I think it was closer to $3500.

[Chong]

Ricky,

Best to read all the threads from the guys that got married and their wedding day stories. There's just too many things to cover.

My wedding in Kaiping [ small town of 800,000 ] cost $ 2,000 Cdn from start to finish [ red book to dinner ]. I also gave 18,000 as a red envelope to my in-laws ... so about $ 5,000 Cdn in total.

Martin forgot to mention that he got back the same amount in Red Envelopes. In fact, I think he made a profit. 

[Martin]

That is also a good point Chong.  All of our guests brought a Red Envelope with money in it.  I do believe that in the end, we had more money than when we started out.  So basically the wedding was free.

Ted also brings up a good point, about giving money for the bride.  I didn't do this, but a lot of guys do give money to the parents.  Like Chong said, read this forum, there are a lot of trips that talk about this.  Although I don't talk about the cost on my blog, you can read up about my wedding here:  http://thechinesedumpling.blogspot.com/2009/04/wedding-celebration.html

[Chong]

I was only joking about the "profit"; I thought you got back half your cost.

Shit, I only got back 1,200 RMB / $ 250 Cdn in red envelopes from my wedding. Here in Kaiping, if something 'negative' happens in your household during the month of someone's wedding, you're not required to give a RE as it signiflies passing on the back luck.

I think a lot of people's dog(s) or chicken(s) died during our wedding month ... hahaha.

[Martin]

I was only joking about the "profit"; I thought you got back half your cost.

Shit, I only got back 1,200 RMB / $ 250 Cdn in red envelopes from my wedding. Here in Kaiping, if something 'negative' happens in your household during the month of someone's wedding, you're not required to give a RE as it signiflies passing on the back luck.

I think a lot of people's dog(s) or chicken(s) died during our wedding month ... hahaha.

I like how you blame the dogs and cats.  In reality, everyone was upset that Sunny was marrying a long haired hippy Canadian!

[Ricky]

Thanks for the answers fellas.  And thanks for your blog link martin.  That really helped but a good picture in my mind of the events to come.  Just reading it kind of gets myxnerves worked up a lil.  My girl lives in chnagsha for work, but the ceremony will be im her hometown which i can't remember off hand at the moment.   Im at work now and can't thumb through all of our letters at the moment.  Not alot of help i know.

[Martin]

Changsha is a beautiful city.  Several of us got our red books here, as will you when the time comes.  Let us know where in Hunan you are heading to...I am curious.

[Willy The Londoner]

Well Ricky
If her home town is in Changsha then find out exactly where it is. It is possible that Changsha is the only city in Hunan that has is able to marry foreigners to Chinese nationals.

My wife is from Hengyang but we married in Changsha.

But do not worry about where you will do the  actual marriage paperwork. That is just the beaurocratic requirement.  You can have the wedding and celebration at any time and in any place after that is bes for you.

As Martin says every town has many shops for wedding planners and your lady will alreay know one or two.

Let her and her Ma doe it.  It will keep them occupied.  Just tell them the budget.

Willy

[ttwjr32]

yes have a budget or it will get out of hand quickly or the expectations will be high

[Jimmy]

From what I have seen most of these women have dreamed of this wedding for many years. They already know exactly what to do and where to do it.
I spent about $1000 not including the ring. And our gathering of family was very small. Picture day is actually pretty cheap, And you will see her smiling all day long they love this stuff.

[ttwjr32]

they love and cherish this stuff   and get a good coffee table book of all your picture or a select few
that goes over very well

[Willy The Londoner]

I suppose I spent about 2000 all together and that included travelling to her hometown.

AND i am talking about RMB and not Dollars.

At least she wanted me for what I am - a really tight bastard.

Willy