[ohchk2001]

Hello all,

I've been living in HK on an Investment Visa and so far I loved my life in Hong Kong. I met the girl of my dreams here and we both want to get married.

We're both new to to getting married and want to know what we should do first. I also want to add that I get along well with her family.

We're planning on getting married in April, which would be ideal because my Investment Visa expires on June 11th. Rather than renewing the Investment Visa, I'd like to renew the Visa as a Dependant Visa.

Getting the Dependant Visa after we get married is the easy part. The actually marriage part is the hard part. We're both totally new to this whole marriage thing, and a tad nervous since we want to have it done by April.

For example, will it okay to reserve a "marriage appointment" with the government in late December for late April? How do we do this?

What about reserving a restaurant? Will that be troublesome? We're going to have a small and private wedding, nothing too big.

Any advice here is greatly appreciated because we have no idea how to do this. Thanks guys. I love the forums!

[larac]

I saw the Western Building in Sheung Wan promoted as a Wedding Venue - its not my thing but maybe worth a look. Also the Hong Kong Park looks to be a popular spot - at 8am on a Saturday morning the brides were starting to arrive because there is a registry office there and the restaurant there looks quite nice and worth considering. Good Luck!

[neither3nor4]

In HK people don't typically do everything on the same day. You can marry at the register's office and arrange your reception for a different day.

[carang]

i married a local man here in hk almost 6 years ago(april 2, 2000)... we had our civil ceremony at the registry in HK park...
we had our chinese party at the happy valley race track... it was FANTASTIC!!!! we had a surf'n'turf buffet and we were able to choose some of the tradtitional chinese wedding banquet food, but also food that all of the foreign guests could appreciate! it was FABULOUS food and GORGEOUS decoration!!!!
it was also reasonably priced!


there is a website that describes a lot of the tradtions associated with a chinese wedding. do a search on chinese customs/traditions and see what you come up with. there is also a book called CANTONESE CUSTOMS or CHINESE CUSTOMS.... can't remember which, i found it very helpful and ended up knowing more aboutthe customs than my husband!

[mingming]

Check the ESDlife wedding. It includes marriage booking, banquet, tradition and attire, etc. It's in both Chinese or English.

http://wedding.esdlife.com/home/eng/default.asp

Good luck!!

[Anthony Green]

.... and - bridegroom - be sure to get a complete [cooked] roast Suckling Pig delivered to your new in-laws soon after the consumation of your "conjugal rights" if you want to stay on the right side of Chinese tradition.

It's hacked up and pieces passed to close relatives.

[PDLM]

Presumably one should just lie and send this after the wedding rather than several months or years before?

[dainsai]

Have been to a wedding reception at Hong Kong Park's L16 and it was nice. Also recommended is Banyan Tree in Phuket, depending on your budget of course, but I think there's no wedding better than a resort.

[wmc]

I am malaysian chinese and i married my husband ( british) here in hong kong. all you have to do is to go to the marriage registry and book for a date that you wish to marry. you will have to pay a certain amount of money( can't remember how much). it's pretty straight forward. try this website http://www.immd.gov.hk/ehtml/bdmreg_4.htm

[ohchk2001]

Is booking around late December for late April okay? I don't want to book until we tell her father about it so that we get his approval on the date. There is no doubt that he'd approve the wedding though.

He is pretty traditional though, so I hope he isn't going to be anal about those "lucky" wedding days or whatever which I hear are harder to book.

I more or less know all the important traditions, I'm more worried about being about to book the wedding on time than anything else.

Thanks for the posts guys! I am feeling better.