Wording and Grammar in a Chinese Wedding Invitation

[Pegasus]

Hello everyone,

 

I am here to humbly ask for any help/assistance from anyone interested or willing.  First, here is a little bit of info about me.  I have always been interested in languages, Chinese in particular. Time permitting, I have studied Chinese off and on for many years now. However, languages don’t come easily for me. It takes an incredible amount of time to get good at a language (at least it does for me), and unfortunately, the demands of the life that I am living at the moment don’t allow me a lot of time for sustained studying. But, I’ve loved Chinese for a very long time, and I really do enjoy studying it. Unfortunately, although I have studied Chinese to the point where I am not an absolute beginner anymore, my Chinese ability is still not what I wish.

 

I am getting married, and I am creating a wedding invitation for my wedding scheduled for later this year. I would really like to have a Chinese version of my invitation along with my English version of the invitation. I am hoping I might be able to find some help with writing the Chinese version of my invitation. My fiancée and I picked out a pretty, but simple style for our English invitation. The language on the English invitation is modern and casual. It reads:

 

(All people names and place names have been changed to protect privacy.)

 

TOGETHER WITH THEIR FAMILIES

KATHYRN CHANG & STEPHEN CHEN

INVITE YOU TO JOIN THEM AT THEIR

WEDDING

SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015 6:00 PM

 

SERENIPITY GARDEN WEDDINGS

12865 OAK GLEN ROAD

OAK GLEN, CALIFORNIA  92399

 

RECEPTION TO FOLLOW

 

I am debating in my head how I should write the Chinese version of the invitation. Should I go with a version very close to what the English version reads? Here is my first attempt at that:

(Pardon my Chinese errors. I welcome any Chinese help or advice you can offer.)

 

跟家人一起

張秀英 & 陳曉明

恭請光臨

舉行婚禮

二零一五年六月七日（星期日）下午六時

 

SERENIPITY GARDEN WEDDINGS

12865 OAK GLEN ROAD

OAK GLEN, CALIFORNIA  92399

 

之後婚宴

 

How does this look? As you can see, I basically took the English version of my invitation and tried to translate it into Chinese. I made up 「跟家人一起」from the English “TOGETHER WITH THEIR FAMILIES”. I don’t know if this makes sense in Chinese. Also, what’s your opinion of 「恭請光臨」versus 「恭候光臨」?  They seem to both mean the same thing in my dictionary. For the word wedding reception, my dictionary gave me two words 「婚宴」 and 「婚筵」. What’s your opinion of 「婚宴」 versus「婚筵」? As you can probably tell, I made up「之後婚宴」from the English “RECEPTION TO FOLLOW”. I couldn’t figure out if I would need to add a character to serve as a verb in between 之後 and 婚宴. Does 「之後婚宴」make sense? What would sound better?

 

Also, for the time, when specifying 6:00 PM on the invitation, is 下午六時 better or is 晚上六時 better?

 

The above is my attempt at a straight up translation from the English version to Chinese. However, after looking at some examples of Chinese wedding invitations, I am thinking that maybe I should go with something a little more traditional for the Chinese version. Some of the information I found on the Internet (on English language web pages) also advise following a format and using certain formal language when creating a Chinese wedding invitation. What’s your opinion on this? Could I go with a kind of hybrid between a traditional Chinese and a modern Western style maybe?

 

The examples I’ve seen specify the date in both the Western (Gregorian) Calendar and the Chinese Traditional Calendar. I actually think this is kind of cool and I would like to do this on my Chinese invitation. I have found tools in the Internet that easily translate a date from the Gregorian calendar to the Chinese calendar.

 

Some examples I’ve seen include a phrase 「敬備喜酌」or 「敬備薄酌」. From what I can tell, it communicates that we will be offering food and drink. Could I use this in place of 婚宴 in my English to Chinese translation? Also, which sounds better or what is your opinion of 「敬備喜酌」vs 「敬備薄酌」?  

 

The examples and advice I have seen on the Internet for Chinese wedding invitations also phrase the invitation such that the bride’s and the groom’s parents are the official hosts and put the parents’ names at the end of the invitation (as opposed to specifying the hosts at the beginning of the invitation like in the English version). I may be okay with only specifying our parents’ names as the official hosts on the Chinese version, but I am also wondering if it might be okay to put both the parents’ names and the bride’s and groom’s name as the official hosts on the Chinese version. What are your thoughts on this?

 

It appears that on the traditional Chinese invitation (as far as I understand it) the bride and groom’s birth order among their siblings is specified. This is an interesting bit of cultural practice. In our case, the groom is the oldest among his brothers (he has no sisters), so it looks like the groom’s name would be preceded by 長男. The bride has two older brothers and one younger sister. I’m not sure, but from what I understand, because she is the older among her and her sister, I guess her name would be preceded by 長女. What do you think? Does this look correct?

 

There’s also an additional complication. We are going to have a Chinese style tea ceremony at home in the late morning before noon. Only family will be at the tea ceremony and thus I don’t want to mention this on the English version of the invitations, but I am thinking that maybe I should mention it on the Chinese version. At the tea ceremony, we’ll be serving tea to our parents and to our grandparents, uncles, and aunts, I think. I am also under the impression that we will be offering prayer to our ancestors with incense.  Only later that day, at 6PM, we will have the Western style ceremony where we will “walk down the aisle” with the bride wearing a white dress. And after the Western style “walk down the aisle” ceremony, at the same venue, we will have the wedding reception/dinner.

 

I tried looking up the word “tea ceremony” in my Chinese dictionary, but it only gave me 茶道, which doesn’t seem right to me. Could this be the right word to use in the context of a wedding? It’s hard to find good information on the Internet, but at one website, I came across 奉茶. 「奉茶」sounds to me like it might be the better word to use for the type of tea ceremony done at weddings, but I don’t really know. Is there anyone here that knows? At that same website, it also mentioned 拜堂, which sounds to me like it might be the praying to the ancestors with incense part. Is this right? Should I mention both 拜堂 and 奉茶 on the Chinese wedding invitation since they will be done (in the morning) at a different time than the rest of the wedding?

 

So, if I try to follow the traditional Chinese format with my modifications, I think I would have something like this:

 

謹訂於　西曆　二零一五年　六月　七　　日（星期六）

　　　　農曆　乙未　　年　四月　二十一日

 

為　長男　陳曉明　

　　長女　張秀英　舉行結婚典禮

 

上午在本宅舉行拜堂和奉茶

 

並於同日晚上六時假座 Serendipity Garden Weddings, 12865 Oak Glen Road, Oak Glen, California  92399 舉行西式結婚典禮和跟著敬備喜酌

 

恭請光臨

 

　　　　李桂英　張秀英　　

張旭東　王秀蘭　陳曉明　　同敬約

 

The above is my attempt at writing a more traditional Chinese wedding invitation. I followed examples of Chinese wedding invitations and I added in my own modifications. I definitely could use some help understanding some of the vocabulary and grammar though. Hopefully I didn’t mess up too bad.

 

I tried to write that the Chinese style ceremony will be held at home in the morning. That’s how I got 「上午在本宅舉行拜堂和奉茶」. Does this make sense? I learned about the word 「本宅」from an example Chinese Wedding invitation. From what I can tell, it means "at home", but please correct me if I am wrong. Should I use「本宅」or does it sound too weird? Also, I’m not sure if I should include or omit 「舉行」before 「拜堂和奉茶」. Does it make sense to include 「舉行」 here? Also, I linked 「拜堂」and 「奉茶」 with 「和」. Should I do this or should I omit the 「和」here?

 

For the next part, 「並於同日晚上六時假座 Serendipity Garden Weddings, 12865 Oak Glen Road, Oak Glen, California  92399 舉行西式結婚典禮和跟著敬備喜酌」, I was trying to say that, additionally, a Western Ceremony will be held at Serendipity Garden Weddings at 6:00 PM with a reception to follow. My apologies if this sentence came out totally wrong. I got 「並於」from an example Chinese wedding invitation. Using my dictionary, I think it means “and at …(followed by place or time)”. Then, I saw「同日」in another example Chinese wedding invitation. I gather that this means “on the same day.” Alternatively, I saw in a different example the use of  「是日」instead of 「同日」. What’s your opinion of which sounds better? Feel free to make any suggestions.

 

For the time, again, I wasn’t sure if I should put 「晚上六時」 or 「下午六時」. Which would you say is more correct?

 

Then, I put the characters 「假座」after the time but before the location. Again, I got this from an example Chinese wedding invitation, but I am really not sure about what 「假座」means. I searched, but I can’t find「假座」in any of the Chinese-English dictionaries that I use online or in hard copy. The only thing that I found that could clue me in on what this means was when I input「假座」into Google Translate. I know Google Translate is imperfect, but I had exhausted my other resources. Google Translate translated「假座」into “held at”, which seems to make sense in the context of the example Wedding invitation I was looking at. Have any of you encountered 「假座」before? Is this usage correct or am I just totally wrong here?

 

I didn’t know how to differentiate the Western style ceremony from the Chinese style ceremony, so I used the word that I know to mean Western style,「西式」. Does it make sense to say 「舉行西式結婚典禮」? As I mentioned earlier, my first attempt was to use the word「婚宴」or「婚筵」for “reception”, but the examples of Chinese wedding invitations I saw seemed to use 「敬備喜酌」or 「敬備薄酌」. And, using my dictionary, I found「跟著」to mean “to follow after”. So that’s how I came up with 「舉行西式結婚典禮和跟著敬備喜酌」for my attempt to write “having a Western style wedding ceremony with a reception to follow.” Also, I used 「和」here as a conjunction, is that okay? Would it be better to use a different word or to omit it all together?

 

After that, following the example, I put 「恭請光臨」, with「光臨」in larger font as they did in the example. Some examples have 「恭候光臨」and some have 「恭請光臨」. Which one would you say is better?

 

In following the example, I put the names of the hosts last. The examples only list the parents has the hosts. Should I only put the parents? Or, would it be okay to include the name of the bride and the groom here to give it a slightly more Western style feel? (The names have been changed to protect privacy.) Here, 李桂英 is the groom’s mother and 陳曉明 is the groom. (The groom’s father is deceased.) 張旭東 is the bride’s father. 王秀蘭 is the bride’s mother. And, 張秀英 is the bride. That’s how I got to this:

「　　　　李桂英　陳曉明　　

　張旭東　王秀蘭　張秀英　　同敬約」

Does this look correct?

 

Thank you for any help anyone here can offer. It would help out a whole lot.

 

I am hoping to achieve a good but acceptable Chinese wedding invitation, and I am also trying to use this as an educational opportunity to further my Chinese language learning.

In advance, thank you so very much for your help.  感謝您們！

 

(*Edited by author to correct minor typographical errors.)

Edited January 19, 2015 at 05:20 PM by Pegasus

[jbradfor]

Suggest you find a Chinese invitation place and have them figure out the details.  They do this all the time, and will get it right.

[Pegasus]

Quote from Post #2 (jbradfor): 

Suggest you find a Chinese invitation place and have them figure out the details.  They do this all the time, and will get it right.

 

 

@jbradfor: Thank you for your suggestion. I'll keep it under consideration. You're right. A professional Chinese invitation place should know what they're doing, although I'm not quite sure how to go about finding one. I'll try a Google search tonight. Maybe it's not as difficult to find one as I'm fearing it might be. I'm guessing that there wouldn't be one near where I live (I don't actually live in Southern California or a place where there is a very high culturally Chinese population density). So, I am hoping that I can find one that can correspond with me using e-mail.

 

Still, I am hoping to have a good language learning and cultural discussion.

 

Some of the Chinese language learning (and cultural) topics that we could discuss as a group could include:

「恭請光臨」 vs 「恭候光臨」  as an invitation phrase

「婚宴」 vs 「婚筵」 for wedding reception

「晚上六時」 vs 「下午六時」for 6:00 PM

The meaning of「敬備喜酌」vs 「敬備薄酌」 for offering food and drink. Would this expression only be used for served food? Could this still be used if we’re offering the food in a buffet style at the wedding reception? Does it even matter for the expression how the food is presented?

Does「長女」make sense for eldest daughter even if she has two older brothers?

「茶道」vs 「奉茶」for tea ceremony

「拜堂」 for the offering of prayer to ancestors with incense part of the ceremony in the morning. (I’m not sure if this happens before or after the tea ceremony. I wonder if anyone here has some familiarity with this.)

「本宅」 to mean “at home”

「舉行」as a verb for 「拜堂和奉茶」

「並於」to mean “and at…(followed by a place or time)”

「同日」vs 「是日」to mean “on the same day”

The meaning of「假座」? Does it mean “held at”?

Does 「舉行西式結婚典禮」make sense to mean “to hold a Western style wedding ceremony”?

Does anyone with Chinese cultural familiarity have an opinion on whether it would be bad to include the groom and bride among the official hosts as opposed to only having the parents be the official hosts of a wedding?

 

I look forward to more feedback, advice, and suggestions.

Thank you all! I really appreciate it.

[jbradfor]

Ah.  I assumed you live in Oak Glen.

[Lu]

It looks like both you and your fiance are ethnic Chinese. Perhaps you can ask your parents for advice? I assume that the Chinese version of the translation is mainly intended for your family, so your parents might know what kind of invitation would look good.

The Chinese wedding invitations I've seen have the parents of the couple as hosts, but if you have an English and a Chinese invitation side-by-side, in my opinion it would be a bit weird to make that part different.

Does 「長女」 make sense for eldest daughter even if she has two older brothers?

I think you should use 三女, because you're not the oldest. But this can vary in different regions, so check with your parents/relatives if possible.

「拜堂」 for the offering of prayer to ancestors with incense part of the ceremony in the morning. (I’m not sure if this happens before or after the tea ceremony. I wonder if anyone here has some familiarity with this.)

Who came up with this idea? That person would probably know when it's appropriate. My guess would be that you first have the ceremony (= wedding) and then the tea (to celebrate), but I could easily be wrong.

I hope you can put in the final text once you have it!

Lastly, consider removing your full names and address from your post. This is the internet and anyone can see it.

[liuzhou]

 

Lastly, consider removing your full names and address from your post. This is the internet and anyone can see it.

 

She did say 

 

 

(All people names and place names have been changed to protect privacy.)

[Lu]

Ah, you're right. I missed that. Nevermind then.

[Pegasus]

Thank you @Lu and @liuzhou for your responses, feedback, and advice. I appreciate it. 

 

Quote from post#5 (Lu):

「拜堂」 for the offering of prayer to ancestors with incense part of the ceremony in the morning. (I’m not sure if this happens before or after the tea ceremony. I wonder if anyone here has some familiarity with this.)

 

Who came up with this idea? That person would probably know when it's appropriate. My guess would be that you first have the ceremony (= wedding) and then the tea (to celebrate), but I could easily be wrong.

 

 

I am under the impression that the tea ceremony is part of the wedding ceremony rather than a celebratory thing after the wedding. But, the order of what comes first and what comes second (prayer with incense and the tea ceremony) will be explained to us, so I'm not actually worried about the order. It's something that I will find out sooner or later. I was just curious. 

 

What I am more concerned with right now is the vocabulary and language usage of「拜堂」and「奉茶」. These are new vocabulary words for me, and I haven't actually seen these words on any example wedding invitations. I originally found these two words on a webpage on the Internet explaining in English a bit about traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies. And then I checked my English-Chinese-English dictionary. 「拜堂」is a word in my dictionary, but 「奉茶」wasn't listed in my dictionary. However, even though 「奉茶」as a word wasn't listed in my dictionary, the meaning of the two individual characters together (as explained in my dictionary) makes a lot of sense for what I think it's supposed to mean. 

 

The reason I am considering putting this language in is because I was trying to find a way to mention (in the Chinese version of the invitation) that in the morning we'll have a Chinese style ceremony and in the evening we'll have a Western style ceremony. That's how I came up with 「上午在本宅舉行拜堂和奉茶」. I made this up. 

 

My main questions regarding this one sentence 「上午在本宅舉行拜堂和奉茶」 are:

1. Does the sentence generally make sense?

2. Is it okay to link 「拜堂」and 「奉茶」with「和」?

 

3. Do I need 「舉行」as a verb here? Or can 「拜堂和奉茶」stand alone without 「舉行」? Or can it work either way?

4. Does using 「在本宅」make sense? This is a totally new vocabulary word for me. Does it sound weird? Would I be better off just saying 「在家」?

 

My thanks to everyone!

 

[jbradfor]

 

I am under the impression that the tea ceremony is part of the wedding ceremony rather than a celebratory thing after the wedding.

 

As with all cultural ceremonies YMMV, but the way we did it was tea at my wife's parents' house (for her parents) before the ceremony when we came to pick her up, and then tea at my parents' house (for my parents) after the ceremony.  The tradition comes from the bride leaving her parents' house when she gets married and then joining the groom's family, so the first tea is a farewell/thanks to her parents, and the second a welcoming to her new family.  [Of course, times have changed and we do have our own house separate from our parents'....]

[Pegasus]

@jbradfor. Very cool. Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm always fascinated by other people's stories. I think we're probably doing a modified version, but something very very similar to what you did. I haven't figured out the details yet though. 

[elvisyu5]

Try this traditional Chinese wedding invitation format:

 

送呈 （invitee name）先生/女士  台啟

 

謹定於 （date） 年公曆      月      日 （星期（wirte capital Chinese days, such as 一，二，三，四，五，六，日））

                               農曆      月      日

 

為   （bride and fiance's name)  舉行結婚典禮警備喜筵

 

恭請 （invitee name)

                                  屆時光臨。

 

吉時：（time）

祥地：（location）

                                                           

                                                                            (inviter 1)

                                                                            (inviter 2)       敬邀

 

 

 

* Inviter 1 and inviter 2 could be your parents or you and your fiance but anyhow they should appear in couples.

* It is better to write the Chinese traditional wedding invitation on the bright red paper.

 

 

Here is the link of this invitation picture. You can refer to it if it works well: http://jingyan.baidu.com/album/066074d69e0b71c3c21cb0d7.html?picindex=1

[elvisyu5]

I'm sorry for the wrong word in '警備喜筵' and  it should be "敬備喜筵".