If you are newly engaged and preparing for a traditional Chinese wedding (Chinese tea ceremony), you might find the following places in Hong Kong useful when it comes to shopping for your wedding supplies. 

Cantonese wedding traditions can include setting up the marital bed, bethrothal gifts, a hair setting ceremony the night before the wedding, door games, the actual tea ceremony, and more.

My goal was to shop for wedding accessories, including a tea set, red pockets of various kinds, pajamas, red wedding shoes, decor to post on walls, car decor, and more since I knew purchasing these items would be cheaper than in Canada.

The first place I went to in Hong Kong to look for wedding accessories was Golden Plaza in Mong Kok. They have three levels of individual shops that rent out evening dresses and gowns and shops that sell anything from tea sets, pjs, wedding favour boxes, invitations, photography services, fruit baskets, and more. The prices here were reasonably cheap (cheaper than purchasing in Canada) but did vary from shop to shop.

The shops don’t list any prices on the items, so you have to ask for them. (My tip is to bring a small clipboard with a pen [or do this on your phone] with columns for each shop, the item, and the price so that later on, you can compare and see which place sells the item for the cheapest.) You can haggle the prices at these shops as well.

One of the dress shops we encountered required a fee in order for you to try on anything in the store. The salespeople can be pushy and use various tactics to try to get you to pay a higher fee. If you really are interested in something, there’s no refund for the try-on fee and make sure you haggle the price. (We didn’t go through with this process — not worth it.)

The second place I visited was Beverley Commercial Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. This was also a building with three floors of shops (it had less shops than Golden Plaza overall though), but I found the shopkeepers here more down-to-earth and willing to help.

One of the dress shop salesperson welcomed us to browse through their kwas and evening gowns.

There was a shop with a “one stop shop” concept too where you could get everything in one place for a set fee. If I were to return, I would have bought my necessary items here.

There was also a store called b.balloons that specialized in selling balloons and arrangements for events for birthdays, engagements, weddings, and others. I found their foil balloons incredibly affordable with lots of variety too. The shopkeeper gave me so much information even though she found out I wasn’t a local (and thus wouldn’t be a candidate for purchasing the bigger double balloons). Ultimately, this was another shop worth returning for.

A third place I checked out was a small place in Kwun Tong (entering from the street into a furniture shop and into the mall). This shop was small but sold everything that a bride would need as well. Within Kwun Tong, I also visited another two small shops (one called “Joyful Wedding”) in a commercial building specializing in fruit baskets and bethrothal gifts. These shops were not useful to me. They were also very small shops, only a size of a room. Locals looking for bethrothal gifts would find it useful since the company would prepare the gifts and send it to the bride’s residence directly.

The absolute best place to purchase Chinese ceremony items, however, is in Shen Zhen, China. It is the absolute cheapest that I found (cheaper than Hong Ong prices) and the quality of material is the same as the ones found in Hong Kong (the shops in Hong Kong retrieve their supplies from China anyway so essentially, you have cut out the middle man cost.)

We took the KCR to the Lo Wu station and crossed the border into Shen Zhen. China is so developed these days that it is even better looking and modern than some parts in Toronto.  From the train station, we rode a taxi to get to the destination.

Here, my cousin brought me to a building with three complexes selling seasonal items, household items, and toys.  (Update: a reader asked me what the name of this building is.  It is “深圳市笋岗文具玩具礼品批发市场C栋” or translated as “Sungang Toys and Stationery Wholesale Market”.)

At this time as it was right before Chinese New Year in February, almost all the front-facing stores were selling CNY items like “fei chun”, stuffed pig dolls (it’s the Year of the Pig), crackers, red pockets, decorative pieces, and much more. There was a flurry of red and pink colours all around the mall and all very festive for the upcoming holiday.

There were a few wedding-focused stores within all three buildings and throughout all three floors. We browsed all the shops from the right-side building to the left.

I found what I needed in all three buildings, but I returned back to the first shop in the first complex on the right to gather everything I needed. It was the biggest shop with all the wedding accessories laid out neatly and the prices were good. We spent at least 1.5 hours browsing for every little thing here.

The shopkeeper was patient enough to help us for those 1.5 hours of shopping. We ended up purchasing a lot and even then how much we spent was peanuts compared to what the equivalent would have cost in Canada. (Make sure you bring a large rolling bag with you as you’ll likely need it to carry your purchases.)

Highlights of my purchase included my 45 RMB red shoes, hairdo sets for 45 and 33 RMB (male and female sets respectively), two pajama sets for 32RMB, tea set for 80 RMB, a package of balloons for 35 RMB, and 囍 wall decor for 6 RMB each.

If you have the chance to visit Shen Zhen, it truly is the best place to shop for Chinese wedding items! I’m so grateful to my relatives for bringing me here to shop! ^_^

Otherwise, the other plazas and shops I mentioned above are still great for wedding items. There are also many individual bridal shops and parlours in various pockets of Hong Kong worth checking out.