My fiance and I wanted to maintain Chinese traditions in our wedding. These traditions hold significant meanings and are part of our heritage.
Guodali (过大礼) is a meaningful tradition in Chinese Betrothal custom. The purpose of this custom is to show respect for the bride's family and sincerity in the proposal of the marriage.
Chinese wedding pastries (喜饼) are given to the bride during Guodali. Usually both families will compile the number of boxes of wedding cakes they need and order from the cake shop in advance. The groom will buy and collect the Chinese wedding cakes. He will bring it to bride's home along with other essential engagement gifts and 2 Angbaos.
As a gracious gesture to accept the marriage and reciprocate the kindness ( 回礼 ), the bride's family will keep some boxes of the wedding cakes and return some boxes back to the groom's family with betrothal gifts and 1 Angbao. The Chinese wedding pastries will then be given to the couple's relatives with the wedding invitation card. I will cover more details on the gifts for Guodali in my next post.
We ordered the Chinese wedding pastries (喜饼) for our marriage at one of the most popular Chinese bakery shops in Singapore.
Tai Thong Cake Shop 大同饼家
Address: 35, Mosque Street, Singapore 059513.Opening hours: Mon- Sat, 8.30am - 6pm.
Closed on public holidays, 1 week for Chinese New Year holidays and moon cake festival.
Tai Thong is famous for their traditional moon cakes and Chinese wedding cakes. There are not many such traditional Chinese pastries shops left in Singapore. Tai Thong have evolved with times and bake western cookies like Cashew nut cookies, Whole Almond cookies and Macadamia nut cookies too. These cookies are available at S$4.50 per packet.
We chose to buy Tai Thong pastries as they do not use pork or lard. Tasty, light and healthy for our family and relatives!
4 varieties of pastries in a wedding box
The above Betrothal gift set includes: 1 Doushabing (豆沙饼) , 1 Longfengbing (龙凤饼) , 1 Lianrongbing (莲蓉饼)
and 1 Dourongbing (豆蓉饼). Cost S$5.80 each box.I hope more wedding couples will integrate this tradition in their wedding to keep our Chinese culture alive and support local traditional businesses.
