Bridal Cookie Cards

We purchased 100 cards on Black Friday. My aunt, Tony and I sat in The AA Bakery in Chinatown while they prepped the cards. This meant that each card had to be hand stamped with the store's name in addition to a signature authorizing the card to be used.

Growing up in ABC has made following a lot of these traditions difficult, especially since I didn't understand or much less knew that these cards existed. But a good source to understand these traditions is the book Good Luck Life by Rosemary Gong. This book provides an explanation for the bridal cookies.

The bride has a cookie day before the wedding. I think of this as the engagement party essentially. The groom's family delivers a roast pig, various bridal cookies, chickens for offering, and any other things according to the tradition of the groom's family's village (ranging from various teas, wines, fruits, etc). The roast pig and other foods are divided by the bride's family and returned to the groom's family. The cookies are distributed to the bride's relatives. Now for those relatives who cannot make it to the event and to also save the trouble of the groom's family of delivering hundreds of cookies, the cookie card is used. The cookie cards are distributed to the relatives, so that they can bring the card in to the bakery and they can redeem the pastries.

A majority of my friends grew up here without practicing this tradition. I've attended many weddings (both friends and family) where they did not participate in this tradition. In the spirit of mixing modern and the traditional, I've decided to only pass these cards out to the relatives that I am inviting (on this side of the Pacific ocean). I won't pass these cards out to my friends since I know they will not redeem the cookies, nor will they eat the cookies.

So with invitations and cookie cards in hand, it is time to march forward and send out the invites.