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aus·pi·cious [aw-spish-uhs]
1. promising success; propitious; opportune; favorable: an auspicious occasion.
2. favored by fortune; prosperous; fortunate.
In Chinese culture, picking an auspicious date is really important. Often that date includes the lucky number 8, which stands for fortune. To pick a date for the year 2008, we would normally have had to wait for the Chinese Almanac to be printed and available at the temple for someone to match our “signs” to an auspicious date that would be prosperous to both of our futures as a married couple. If we had waited to do so traditionally (waiting for the actual hard copy Chinese Almanac), I don’t think we’d have a wedding date yet.
Lucky for us, that information is available via the internet nowadays (to be honest, I’m not sure how reliable it is, since I’ve tried a few random sites and they all had different dates for us.) A week after our engagement though, FMIL had a list of possible wedding dates for us to choose based on the Chinese Lunar Calendar dates and the dates they corresponded to on the Western Calendar. She found this online, through Yahoo! International’s, Hong Kong website.
One of the dates we considered was 8/8/08 (Western Calendar). Nothing more auspicious than that. We opted not to use that date for two main reasons (1) it was an extremely popular date and many weddings will be on that day and (2), it landed on a Friday.
Going over the list that FMIL gave us, we chose a date we loved in May for two reasons (1) the Chinese Almanac date of our wedding date included two number 8’s, one was part of the day and the other of course, the year, and (2) we’d both be the same age. I’m only 2.5 months older, big woopie. So having the wedding in May, I’m one month shy of being “older” than Mr. CB. Not that’s it’s a big deal, it’s just a little inside joke we have since he makes it seem like I’m decades older hahaha. Once our families met and gave us the seal of approval, we were set to go on our date!
Closer to the date of the wedding, our parents will probably consult someone to find the most auspicious times to do the Chinese Tea ceremonies - for when Mr. CB picks me up at my family’s house (where he will get haggled by my BMs) and the time he brings me over to his side of the family to do the tea ceremony with his family (which represents my marrying into his family). Because we’d like the official date of the wedding to be the auspicious date, the tea ceremony for immediate family members will be the same day of the Western ceremony/reception. We’ll be continuing the tea ceremonies the next day before the start of the Chinese Banquet for all of our extended family members.
How did you pick your date? Did anyone assist you with your date or help you pick it? Any special traditions you’re following in regards to date or time?
We picked our date based on the Japanese calendar (also looking for an auspicious date), and we chose the season based on when sakura were in bloom. I knew I didn’t want an April wedding, so we chose March 29th - a great day for weddings (according to the calendar) and also right around sakura season.
Sara - Oooh la la, Sakura Season - wish we hadn’t gotten a date for that. Congrats! Hopefully our epics will be sakura season at least 
We picked our date based on availability of the location we fell in love with… no special numbers. But I think it is so funny what you said about your ages. I too am about 2.5 months older than my fiance. Much to my dismay, of course we are getting married right within that window, when I am 27 and he will be 26. He never stops reminding me about how much older I am!
Ha — he makes fun that you’re “so much older”, just like my FI always says things like “oh that was before your time” even though he is only two years older than me
Hi Miss Cherry Blossom,
Can you share the link of the site that you used to find the date? I found a site similar and wanted to see if they were the same. However, we didn’t end up using the auspicious date because the venue I really wanted was not available for the date.
Please let us know how the timing plays out on your big day if you are following the auspicious times! My FI’s mom wanted to pick times but my wedding schedule is so packed that unless it is 8 or 9 am, it would never work so I am really interested in how you will pull it off. Good luck!
We picked out date for financial reasons. Since we thoguht we were paying for all of it we went with the off season. I love valentines day and so we picked the weekend after. We figured everyone would still be in the lovey mood. It’s also Marcus’ sisters bday that passed away.
We picked the season of our wedding first, and then we “consulted” an online farmer’s almanac for a lucky day (I’m not convinced that they are that accurate either). In the end, I just liked the sound of the date, so we went with it!
Funny that you mentioned being slightly older than your FI. We also have an inside joke. Every year without fail, on FI’s birthday, he says, “So, how does it feel to be dating an older man?”
FI is 2 weeks older than I am. 
We picked our date for convenience for guests…Jan 20. It is a three-day weekend for some in the U. S. because it is MLK Jr. Weekend, it is the start of the school semester so missing a day or two of class shouldn’t be too bad, and it is winter where some of our guests are but will be warm where the wedding is. That seems like a snowbird motivation for guests to hop on a plane.
I am waiting to see how insane 8/8/08 is. My Chinese BFF is already married but her and her husband and trying to conceive in the hopes of having an 8/8/08 baby.
We picked our wedding month because I love the fall seaon and knew I wanted to be married in October, and we chose the day before my parents anniversary (they’ll be celebrating their 33rd anniversary the next day).
I knew what year I wanted it in, but I didn’t have any leanings toward one particular date or season. We kind of toyed with the day of our first date or when he proposed, but December already had my parents’ birthdays and wedding anniversary…not to mention Christmas. So my guy came up something simple. His birthday is the second day of June, and mine’s the second to last day of August, so he found our wedding date smack dab in the middle. July 15th. And it was a Friday.
I wanted to get married in September…so we just found an available Saturday at the place we wanted to get married out. Coincidentally, it ended up falling on the eve of the Autumnal Equinox, which probably will mean nothing to anyone but me, but there’s something lovely about being married at the official start of fall - a time of some much change.
However, it also falls on Yom Kippur - which I didn’t realize until much later on. This did prevent a few guests from attending (however, one plans on arriving after sunset!).
stressgirl615 - Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find the exact random websites I used to find the auspicious dates but I did email FMIL to see if she can send me directly to the link she used to share with you.
As far as the time goes, tentatively thinking ahead, we’re thinking he’s going to come over by 10 am, get haggled, tea ceremony, and eat a little and out the door by 11 am ~ 11:30 am. And head over to his place before noon. But who knows, I’ll keep you posted.
bubbybride - wow, your friend and her hubby are trying for an 8/8/08 baby! now that is exact. Good luck, I hope they succeed. That would be awesome!
I googled some online sources for auspicious dates as well and found conflicting dates. My FMIL bought the Tung Su last night in HK and as long as the day was neutral or good, we were okay with it. In the end, we’re getting married on 8/2/08 because the venue is available and its a “neutral” day.
We also considered 7/26/08, but that was considered inauspicious according to the book.
We DID pick 8.8.08 and I did find a calendar somewhere online that it was a good/netural date.
Bunnybride - ith think it may be a little crazy inthe Chinese-heavy locales. We’re doing a destination wedding so Firday was okay with u (in fact we had to enter a drawing to get the location).
Our friend consulted some sort of Chinese calendar thing and told us what time we had to get mareried at (which was fine since that was the time we drew when they picked up for the hotel).
Good point on the tea ceremony Miss CB! Gotta figure out how to do that so it’s on the same day too.
I have some Chinese ancestry. My grandma helped select our wedding date. We were married 08/18/07. We wanted two “eights” in our wedding date:)
It’s fun to read how other people came up with the date. I felt like I was looking at a blank calendar at first and wondered where to start narrowing it down!
I really wanted to get married on a ‘13th’ since it’s my favorite number. Jan 13 was too soon since we only got engaged Dec 15th! (I would have done it had people not thought us too crazy) Oct 13th was way too long to wait That covers the Saturdays in 2007. April 13th was a Friday - but also the 3rd anniversary of my father passing, I knew I couldn’t handle that. July 13th, another Friday - ugh I was anti summer wedding - and that also seemed so far away! Ok - not getting married on a 13th.
So let’s go another route. We fell in love with a local B&B that overlooked the river (my husband loves fishing/outdoors - and not many wedding decisions revolve around the husband so I thought that was very cool). The max was 56 people which was perfect for our small family wedding. Let’s start the process of elimination to find a spring wedding date! Since we live in a huge college town (with a another large college nearby) - the whole month of May was reserved for graduations. Since we (ok-”I”) didn’t want to push it into a summer/June wedding - we looked at the April dates. I had work commitments in early April, was already in a wedding April 20th (which knocked out that weekend and the weekend prior since we didn’t want to cut a honeymoon short!) - so April 28th it was
It was perfect - It gave us 4 months to plan the wedding which was just right. Not too long, not too short. End of April weather was just warm enough for an outdoor wedding with signs of spring popping up all over. It was also our 1 year 3 month anniversary so I got my 13 in there!!
It was nice to have the date picked! Once it was picked the stress of choosing the wrong one disappeared! The rest of the planning was smooth sailing!
stressgirl615 - I am sorry to report that FMIL could not locate the actual website from Yahoo that she found our date any more. 
Vivian - That is awesome that you guys are having a destination 8/8/08 wedding. I think incorporating the tea ceremony at the beginning of your reception would still work great since you’re doing a destination wedding, that way even your guests get to be involved with your traditions.
Jillian - amazing story - I’m glad you still got your 13 in there! Congratulations. Thanks for sharing your story.
We did 8/8/08 as well - not only because it’s my favorite number, but because I had been teasing my fiance for years that that was the date I wanted to get married! We originally changed it to the 2nd to avoid the Friday date, but then figured that we might as well go with what I’d been saying all along (even my mom knew lol). Plus, he’s a teacher so it works out great that he won’t be in school!
I also picked 8/8/08, I wanted this date for over a year, however when we started looking at places, alot of them are taken on 8/8/08. So I took the first place that had the date open, and it happened to be my top choice as the RH. I almost went as far as starting the wedding at 8pm, but then we thought it was too late =)
I wanted 08.08.08 but it was a Friday and FI did not want people to take time off work to attend our wedding so we’re doing 08.09.08, which is even better with the 9s and 8s. My cousin got married on 08.08.98 so it follows a tradition in our family somewhat.
The Olympics in China will begin on 08.08.08 at 8:08!
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Mrs. Cherry Blossom, San Francisco Age and Occupation: 27, Administrative Asst. Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, District Sales Manager Engagement Date: December 23, 2006 Wedding Date: May 3, 2008 Venue: Zen Garden in the East Bay w/ reception in a floor-to-ceiling window Atrium with views of the Zen Garden About Me: After 5 years of dating, we're finally ready to get hitched! I am a lovah of all things wedding, creative, crafty, and definitely DIY bc I love to add a personal touch to everything I gift or make. In my free time, I like to bake, spend time with our family, friends, and my doggies, read my guilty pleasure celebrity gossip and catch up on TV shows.
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