Vietnamese Tea Ceremony in Western-style Wedding

I think doing them before sounds best. If you do it before you can continue with your rings and vow and go straight into the recreational, whereas the other way may cut it off wonky. With PP, vows should be don't with the rings. Ultimately it's up to you and what you feel most comfortable with! I would also love to see this! It sounds beautiful!

I'm doing the tea ceremony as well, it'll be after the ceremony.

@feuy I've also heard that the tea is sometimes done at the beginning of the reception. Are you doing something along those lines?

My tea ceremony will be before my "western" ceremony! The "bling" typically is given by family members and usually consists of necklaces, bracelets, & rings (not wedding bands). This feels more like a private event to me, so we are serving them the tea and doing this portion of our wedding before our more western ceremony. This way its less awkward for those who aren't family as well!

Yes @jcsquared

I'm not culturally Vietnamese enough to feel the need to have a full day affair of the whole ceremony, which is why I'm only incorporating only the tea part into the Western ceremony.

I've usually seen it done before the ceremony at the bride's family home with only family present since it's an intimate affair. I'm actually planning to do a brief one during the reception following the Korean tradition since my FH is Korean. I would say it's all personal preference!

We did the Chinese tea ceremony right before cocktail hour at the reception venue.

I've seen it done before the wedding ceremony where they pour the tea at the parents' homes then they head to the ceremony location.

Curious if you've been married yet and how this went for you/what part of your ceremony you incorporated this into? I'd really like to include this in my wedding ceremony, and would love any advice you have!

Oh hey! WW finally updated so that we can quote/reply directly to people!

So, here's what we did (and just to clarify, the only Vietnamese aspect we incorporated was the pouring of the tea):

Before the ceremony, we had a person fill up the tea pot and we had the tea pot on a warmer (you can get one where you light a tea light underneath), and we had a "tray" with just a napkin laying on it. These were up at the front on the table/altar. I think MOST of the times, the tea cups should also be up there too, but I had a niece carry in the tea cups alongside the niece who carried the rings during the processional . The tea cups were put on the table at the front during the ceremony. Did the welcome, the readings, had our minister mention something about the significance of the tea ceremony in Viet culture, and then DH and I went up to the altar, put the tea cups on the tray, poured tea. We had our parents and grandparents sitting in the first two rows, so we carried the tea cups to them. DH carried the tray of teacups while I served my family tea. We went up back to the altar and filled the rest of the cups for his side of the family. I carried the tray this time while he served tea to his side of the family. We put everything everything back on the altar and then exchanged vows and rings.

In a more traditional ceremony, I know there's the praying to the ancestors, lucky money and advice given to the couple, and jewelry placed on the bride, and I THINK tea is served to most or all the elders (aunts and uncles); we just served tea to the parents and grandparents, because there between the two of us, there were a total of 13 of them. Two of your attendants/wedding party members may also aid in the tea pouring. Traditionally there are only 4 cups; one helper pours the tea, the other is constantly switching cups while the couple are both serving tea. We didn't have the space in the front of the chapel to do this, and our families aren't comfortable enough to share cups, so I used 12 cups, and that's why we pre-poured tea instead of having someone pour tea during serving. If you wanted to include a prayer/offering to the ancestors, I think you could include that... I don't know how long that typically takes, but it coincides well with the Western wedding version of acknowledging gparents/other people who are deceased/couldn't make it to the wedding. Depending on what else you have planned, the advice/lucky money can take a while along with the adornment of jewelry. Again it depends on what you're planning.

What ideas do you have so far?