I have been traveling a lot lately for my day job. In fact, I just came back from Schaumburg, IL, a suburb of Chicago and I’m about to hop on a plane to NYC in a few hours (not looking forward to the hot and humid!). As a result, I have not been finding the time I thought I’d have for all the blog posts I have yet to catch up on.

I was hoping to research in detail the Chinese wedding tea ceremony before posting the Elaine & James wedding I photographed last year, but that may take me forever and so I opted for the wikipidia definition:

“To express thanks to your elders on one’s wedding day
In the traditional Chinese marriage ceremony, both the bride and groom kneel in front of their parents and serve them tea. That is a way to express their gratitude. In front of their parents, it is a practice for the married couple to say, “Thanks for bringing us up. Now we are getting married. We owe it all to you.” The parents will usually drink a small portion of the tea and then give them a red envelope, which symbolizes good luck. Another variance is for the to-be daughter-in-law to serve tea to her to-be parents-in-law, symbolizing that she is to become a part of the latter’s family.”

Elaine & James had a casual wedding day which included a traditional tea ceremony to his family and her family, a short western ceremony in the backyard, and a couple of hours for us to take some great, fun photos at the San Mateo Central Park.

The day was full of love and laughter and it was simply perfect!