Formal Engagement

We had the formal engagement / tea ceremony this past Sunday. It was quite an eventful day. We have uplodaded most of the pictures on Picassa, you can click on the "Photo Gallery" on our website. There are slideshows on there.

The day started off bright and early for me (Emily), waking up around 5am and get her hair washed and then went to a stylist for her hair and make-up. The Hsu family woke up fairly early too, to prep for the event. Momma Hsu made delicious Logan Tea with homegrown dates for the tea ceremony while Dad Hsu cleaned the house inside and out. The siblings helped with the setup and prepped for photo and video.

The Chu family arrived at the Hsu residence at 10am with several relatives visiting from afar. After greetings and brief introductions, every took a seat and waited for me to serve tea. In Taiwanese culture, there are many rules to the engagement that one must follow; such as, the # of people present, the # and types of gifts both family should prepare, and having a matchmaker present...etc. We decided to do the ceremony for the symbolic meaning, thus not really following every single rule. The tea ceremony signifies the acceptance of the to-be-bride into the family. I served tea to everyone in the Chu family, and if they accept me, they will take the cup and drink it. When I came around to collect the cups, all the Chu family members then gave me red envelope with money and place the empty cups on top of it.

We then had the ring exchange. Since it's not common for men to wear an engagement ring, we decided to just have Joe to give me the engagement ring while I gave him a wallet. When Joe was putting the ring on me, I had to bend my ring finger so he could only put it halfway. The Chu family then presented me with all sorts of jewelry and gifts. My gift to Joe was a brand new outfit (suit). He wore it for the event so we didn't have much to give him that day except for the wallet.

After the ceremony was over, we spent some time to take group photos with the family before heading over to Dynasty restaurant for a delicious banquet. We also passed out engagement cookies (喜餅) to all the attendants. Our 喜餅 is from Kobe Fugetsudo (神戸風月堂) This is an over-hundred-year-old store from Kobe, world famous for their sweets and confections. We were able to order them from the Mitsuwa market dessert counter, where tons of famous (and some VERY expensive) Japanese confections are sold. We are giving these delicious cookie sets to our family and close friends and we hope you enjoy them!

Thank you to our family for all the help, support and the wonderful gifts. Thank you to my bros and sis for helping with taking pictures and video. And last but not least, thank you to everyone for all of your kind wishes!

<3, Emily & Joe.