Wedding traditions with money and envelopes
Money is part of nearly every wedding.
Money is part of nearly every wedding. It is pinned to the dress, sprayed on dancers, tucked in an envelope, collected on a dance or handed to a family in a negotiation. How it is given, who sees it and what is said about it shows a lot about a community.
Envelopes and gifts
Chinese and Vietnamese guests give red envelopes, hongbao or li xi, with amounts that have lucky numbers, avoiding four. Koreans give envelopes to the couple, and Japanese guests give goshugi, in a special envelope with a knot, in crisp new notes and amounts in odd numbers. In India a shagun envelope is given, often with a one-rupee coin added, and in the Gulf and Jewish weddings, guests also give cash.
Dances, sprays and who pays
At Philippine and Polish weddings, guests pin cash to the bride or pay for a dance, and at Nigerian weddings, spraying notes is common. In Greece the couple may have money pinned to their clothes. In many places the bride's family or the groom pays, or both, and weddings are a heavy cost. Registries and honeymoon funds are an alternative, and some couples ask for a donation to charity instead.
Written by the EveryShaadi desk with AI assistance. Background on Money and envelopes (symbol). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Badchen: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Yoruba traditional wedding: Fhadekhemmy, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Marriage in Myanmar: Thant Zin Myint, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Maithil Vivah: Sntshkumar750, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Yibbum: School of Rembrandt, Public domain, source
- Hausa traditional marriage: Bembety, CC0, source
- Azerbaijani wedding traditions: Azim Azimzadeh, Public domain, source
- Dowry: Vassili Vladimirovich Pukiryov, Public domain, source
- Dower: Pvasiliadis, CC BY-SA 3.0, source