Should I Let You Eat Cake At My Wedding?
I’ve been pondering over this cake thing for a while now. I know it’s still early but I want to do as much planning while I have time now, so later on (next year) I can just relax and get ready to walk down the aisle to be Mrs Chau.
Should we have a wedding cake? Almost every wedding I went to had served cakes and had the cake cutting ceremony. While it is a nice tradition to follow, the heavy cream and densed cake just doesn’t seem that appealing especially after a 12 course Chinese banquet which comes with desserts. At the end of the night, would the guests still haven room to eat a piece of cake?
For the past few years I don’t even have cakes at my birthday dinners. I found that my friends hardly even touch it as they are all so full from the meal. Last year, when I went to a friend’s wedding, I saw that a lot of people left with cakes still on their plate. The interesting thing was that they finished the Chinese desserts (she had a Chinese banquet).
Now if I know that most of the guests would not eat the cake, should I still get one? The answer, for me, is no. Although wedding cakes at Chinese bakeries aren’t too expensive, approximately $3-5 per serving, it’s still money. I don’t really like the thought of wasting $400 on a cake that’s going into the garbage at the end of the night.
We still haven’t made a final decision on this yet, but we’re both leaning towards having a dummy cake for the cutting ceremony and just serve the Chinese desserts which usually consist of a bowl of sweet soup (mine will not be the traditional red bean soup with dumplings) and petit fours (usually cookies, sesame balls and/or coconut pudding).
Photo credit: Morgue File - penywise
Kirin Seafood Restaurant - Chinese Wedding Banquet
This past weekend I had the pleasure to attend my friend Jimmy & Cathy’s wedding. They held the banquet at Kirin Seafood Restaurant located near Vancouver City Hall.
The Kirin in City Square Centre is on the 2nd level. The entrance has a long hallway where you can set up a reception table to greet guests and have them sign your guest book.
The dining area is shaped like a “T”. The hall way will lead to an open area. Then to the left and right there are several steps which takes you to a slightly elevated platform - the top of the “T”. Here’s a very rough sketch I made of the floor plan.
The head tables were placed by the double happiness and people sitting by the wall/pillar location could not see anything. This is one of the down side of this location. There were 25 tables for the banquet. It was slightly crowded but not too bad. For pictures of the table set up and how it looks like, take a look a the Kirin photos I took.
The food were good. I’d say above average but not one of the best I’ve eaten. The dishes were not as hot as I’d like. I didn’t get a chance to take photos as the server comes by to tell us what dish he is serving, then went to divide the dish for us. This is partly because there was a pretty big centre piece so he can not put the big platter of food down. Another reason is so that they can clear the platter off right away instead of coming back to check whether people are done eating. Having the server divide the food is a great idea. But I find that they didn’t divide it very evenly so some people get very little while others have a lot.
Conclusion
I’d recommend Kirin in City Square for those with a smaller banquet size. I was one of the people that had to sit by the corner where I can not see anything and it almost felt like you’re just having a normal dinner while the people a few tables away are having a party. A solution which might be able to fix this problem is to have a video set up, pointing at the head table (since that is where the bride & groom are sitting and where all the games/speeches will be made). Have it hooked up to projectors on to the celling so that the event is broadcast live for the people sitting on the sides.
Contact
Kirin Seafood Restaurant
2nd Floor, City Square
555 West 12th Avenue (& Cambie Street), Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V5Z 3X7
Tel: 604.879.8038<
Chinese Wedding Dowry Item List
After my own experience dealing with dowry, I was curious to find out what is actually included on the gift list. I found a post on a Hong Kong wedding forum (A Wedding HK) with a list of items required from the bride and groom’s family. I’ve copied and pasted it here. It includes the traditional items (in black) and items used as replacement (in orange). The original list is in Chinese, so I’ve translated the items in English. You’ll find a list of reference links below for more information.
Groom’s Dowry:
- Gift Box - red pocket, jewelry (gold), red thread, fruits, etc. (Packaged gift box sold at wedding stores, plus red pocket and jewelry)
- Wedding Cakes - measure by weight. (Give 8/18/28/38…wedding cakes and the rest give cake certificates)
- Dragon & Phoenix Cake - one pair. (no substitutes)
- Dragon & Phoenix Candles - one pair. (Usually included in packaged gift set for wedding)
- “Duilian“, Chinese poetry in pairs - one pair for bride and groom. (Usually included in packaged gift set for wedding)
- Coconut - one pair. (Might be included in packaged gift set for wedding)
- Dried fruits and nuts - dried longan, lychee, walnut, peanuts (Usually included in packaged gift set for wedding)
- Tea (leaves) & Sesame. (Usually included in packaged gift set for wedding)
- Dried seafood - 4 or 8 kinds, abalone, shark fins, fish maw, etc. (Use red pocket as replacement)
- Three live stocks - chickens, fish, pork. (Use red pocket as replacement)
- Wine - 4 bottles (Might be included in packaged gift set for wedding)
- Fresh fruits - fruit basket (shouldn’t be hard to get this one)
Note: All gift items and cakes must be in pairs. A pair of red pockets should accompany each gift. You can also prepare two red pockets with “All Purpose” (excuse my poor translation) as contingency in case something is missing.
Bride’s “Return” Gift (for the Groom’s family):
- Return approximately half of the above mentioned items in Groom’s Dowry.
- Gift for Son-in-law - red pocket, pants, belt, wallet and pair of shoes. (Use red pocket as replacement)
- Lucky plants - lotus roots, guava, ginger, etc. (Packaged “return” gift set - for bride’s gift to groom)
- Return tea - Chinese steamed cake, fried dumplings, red pocket. (Packaged “return” gift set - for bride’s gift to groom)
Note: The “return” gifts should be in pairs also. When using the “return” gift sets, be sure to check every items to ensure that nothing is missing and that the fruits are fresh.
For pictures of some of the dowry items listed above, visit Wedding100Fun.com (Chinese site).
References:
A Wedding HK Forum (Chinese)
China Bridal (English)
Chinese Historical & Cultural Project (English)
