In the past, it was a complete responsibility of the perspective bridegroom’s parents to find a good bride, who would take care of household and give birth to a healthy son. The marriage arrangements could have been done as early as at the birth of the future spouses.

When a good potential bride was found, the bridegroom’s parents would find a spokeswoman who would deliver their wish to marry their son this girl. Today this step is often skipped, since many young people marry because of being in love and choose their future husband/wife themselves.

Matching Birth Dates

It is an important thing to match the bride’s and bridegroom’s birth dates to figure out whether the couple will have a happy life and whether there are no possible disasters after uniting the two. The matching was done with the help of a fortune teller. If the dates don’t match, the further negotiations of the marriage will end.

Today many families follow this tradition and compare bride’s birth date with that of the bridegroom. However, families, which are less superstitious, would often skip this process.

Groom’s Gifts for the Bride

Previously, the tradition was to send the initial gifts to the bride when her birth date was considered suitable. After that the groom’s family picked up a “good” day to send formal gifts, which included gifts, cash, cakes and food and sacrifices for worshiping the ancestors.

Today initial and formal gifts are sent at one time, and they are usually simplified to include dried seafood and fruit basket to the bride's family.

Bride’s Gifts for the Groom

According to the tradition, bride has to send the gift several days before the wedding or bring them on the wedding day, in case she lives far away from the groom. The gifts were made of jewelry, precious stones, kitchen utensils, and bridal linen. Sometimes the bride’s family was expected to set up everything in the bridal’s bedroom except for the bed.

Today the only jewelry and gifts a bride brings to the groom’s family are those given her as wedding presents by her family. She may sometimes pay part of the wedding banquet (which traditionally has to be paid by the groom) and consider it as a part of the groom’s gifts.

Setting up the Bridal’s Bed

After a fortune teller has picked a “good day” for the wedding ceremony, he decides where to put a bed in the bridal bedroom (it must also be a good place). The bed is moved to that corner or part of the room and is set up by the woman who is considered to have a good fortune (has healthy sons and a husband). The woman would also put some good fortune food and fruit on the bed and leave it untouched until the bridal’s night.

The tradition is not kept much today, since it is very expensive to buy a new bed for the couple. Usually, all that is done is the new symbolic red linen is changed to represent the custom of setting up a bridal’s bed. Red colour is traditional for the whole wedding in China.