My wife and I are planning for a trip to Taipei in November, for the marriage of our son to a wonderful young lady from Taipei. My wife has tried to find out what kind of clothing she should wear for the festivities, since we know nothing about local customs. But neither our son nor his bride seem willing to give any advice, other than that she should not show up wearing bluejeans! She would love to know more than that! What colors, styles, accessories are appropriate and which are not? For example, we think we know that wearing anything with black in it is not considered appropriate, but we aren't sure.We don't want to make a bad impression on the family. If somebody who has attended Taipei (Buddhist) wedding celebrations would be willing to give us a bit more guidance, we would really appreciate it! Thanks!

Mark Townsend
Camp Hill, PA.

PS We are both in our early 60's, if that matters. And her family is fairly well off, though not apparently rich.

For the taiwan weddning , please do not take the black suit totally,maybe you should ask your son first that where and how will they have the wedding dinner?
suggst that you can wear formal suit (not black or dark color), we do not have much forbiddance now

I'm not sure about mother of the groom, but the mother of the bride will wear something that is of a red or pink shade and it might be the same for the mother of the groom. Mothers I have seen at weddings in Taiwan tend to wear a dress suit. Red is auspicious so it, or any tone from pink to wine color is a good choice.

hmm. dont wear all white. as a foreigner they wont really care what you wear. its very informal.

When I got married here we used traditional western wedding attire. it was a group ceremony with 14 other couples tying the knot. Other people who were getting married were looking like they were going to McDonalds for lunch almost. There is no apparent dress code for wedding couples other than no blue jeans. one or two girls wore chi-pao dresses or mini skirts. mostly it was polyester uninspired, the more impressive had rented or purchased western style wedding dresses and tuxes. It reminded me of 'that 70's show' quite a bit.

Generally if the bride is religious it involves is a quick private visit to the temple with her family to burn incense and roll some fortune telling dice and burn some ghost money to keep the ancestors happy. This first thing is done before the visit to the government court. The most interesting part is the setting off of firecrackers before people enter cars and the car drive itself as they break all the traffic laws they can to keep the convoy together.

At the dinner afterwards is where all the traditional junk gets let out. Expect vast amounts of weird seafood with plenty of tentacles and moving bits. Dont even try to identify what they are. Usually the bride and groom move from table of loose aquaintences to table of unknown flunkies somehow attached to their boss, performing a quick toast to each table.
then they go off to enjoy their newly bankrupt status. Thats where your gift of paying either 1000Nt, 2000nt or 6000nt comes in to offset their bankruptcy (somewhat) for holding a feast. Quite often it takes the couple months to recover from the moronity that tradition dictates upon them.

If your son is smart he will have avoided this particular tradition and just have spent his money on a honeymoon with his wife. All this information is gleaned from some Taiwanese friends of mine whose weddings I attended and my own wedding where I avoided tradition, much to my bosses flunkies horror. The ancestors have yet to visit their curses upon me, i am still feeling quite happy with my wife. We will see in 20 years i suppose...

The expectations for you are probably a business suit with a short sleeve shirt with a collar and a tie and a dark/neutral color dress for your wife. That should be smart looking enough. dont be all black. probably grey is ok, and neutral colors are likely safest. Avoid too much black and white i guess. look nice, like a summer trip to church.