Before the Chinese Wedding Day
Before her wedding celebration, a Chinese bride traditionally goes into seclusion with her closest friends. This Chinese custom gives the bride-to-be some time to symbolically mourn the loss of her friends and family.
Some time before the couple are married, the groom's family carries wedding gifts in red baskets and boxes to the bride's house. One of the baskets will contain "uang susu" or 'milk money'. Others will contain personal things for the bride, so that on her wedding day all of her personal belongings will be in the groom's house. The bride takes the gifts to another room where they are sorted through. Three days before the wedding day, women from the bride's family reciprocate, bearing gifts -- including some 'returns'-- in red wrappings to the groom's family.