My Experience Booking a Wedding Lion Dance

Booking a lion dance for a wedding in Vancouver can be an intimidating task if you’ve never done it before. But, it doesn’t have to be! Here’s what the process looks like for a happily married couple who chose Chau Luen Athletics as their lion dance performers on their big day.

We asked Elaine, the newlywed, a series of questions about their experience booking with the Chau Luen team and her impressions of the show. Here’s how she described having a lion dance for her wedding, which impressed not only her, but all of her family and friends in attendance.

Photo credit for all images: Kobi Cheung Photography

The cultural connection of a lion dance

What made you decide to include a lion dance in your wedding celebration?

We had planned for a two-day wedding, so that we could have a traditional tea ceremony as well as a semi-formal reception. Since it was a family gathering, we wanted some kind of performance to honour our cultural heritage, but also to surprise the guests with something different.

Did you grow up seeing lion dances at other events? What did they mean to you growing up?

We only saw lion dances during special events like throughout Lunar New Year, and it has always been a fun experience.

However, my eldest cousin knocked it out of the park when she had an impressive lion dance performance at her wedding. Since then, it was all my extended family could talk about whenever weddings were brought up, and I knew that I really wanted one as well, but I never thought I would be able to pull it off.

Booking a wedding lion dance with Chau Luen Athletics was easy and smooth

How did you find out about our lion dances?

I started noticing that a friend of mine, Jonathan, was posting a lot about his lion dancing on his Instagram stories. So, I decided to take a leap and ask him about performing at our wedding. He quickly referred me to Janice and the operations team, and everything went smoothly from there.

How was it working with our team to book the lion dance?

Janice made it incredibly easy to book. I really appreciated the first Zoom call and how she explained everything, even to someone like me who didn’t have experience booking a lion dance before.

She also gave us ideas on how the performance would go, as I had absolutely no idea. She was kind, attentive, and very caring. I was definitely stressed while planning the wedding since there is always a lot to do. However, Janice handled everything like a true professional, as she was patient and organized everything perfectly.

Was it easy to incorporate the lion dance into your wedding?

The team, and specifically Janice, made it very easy to incorporate the lion dance into our wedding schedule and the venue setup. I knew that the venue was going to be tight because we had so many tables, but we were able to do the arch and walk down the makeshift aisle without any rehearsals! I was definitely surprised and thoroughly impressed.

How did you feel leading up to the performance? Were you confident everything was taken care of?

I was very nervous before the performance, but not because of the team. We wanted the lion dance to be a surprise for the guests, so no one knew about it. However, I was very confident in Janice and the rest of the lion dance team, and I knew Jonathan had never let me down before. He was like a big brother to me back in university.

The day of the wedding and the lion dance performance

What was going through your mind as the lion dancers arrived or started the performance?

When the lion dancers arrived, I thought we would’ve had more time to go over what would happen. However, it was all such a rush, because our wedding was behind schedule. Therefore, I was surprised by how well organized and coordinated it was—it seemed like we had rehearsed it before. I was super nervous as to how the guests would react, as many haven’t seen a lion dance performance for a long time.

Did any part of the performance stand out or surprise you?

The part when the lion jumped up to the ceiling definitely surprised us since we had not requested it (editor’s note: it was Jonathan who suggested to surprise the couple with this). It was incredible, exciting, but also made me a little nervous about the chandelier!

The guests also loved when the lions were kissing because they had never seen that before. It was so cute! I also loved the idea of having us in the centre kissing as well and it made for a beautiful memory that our photographer captured perfectly.

My husband was specifically surprised by how strong the lions were pulling at the lettuce! We thought we would’ve lost our grip on the bamboo pole, which was so funny.

How did your guests react to the lion dance? Anyone have any particularly funny or amazed reactions?

Everyone loved the surprise! After the lion dance, a bunch of my relatives praised me for it, even though I wasn’t the one performing. Looking back at the wedding photos, my aunts and uncles had the best reactions—they were completely amazed!

Reflecting on my experience with my wedding lion dance

How do you feel now looking back at the lion dance part of your wedding?

It was an incredible entrance to our reception, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. One thing I would change is that I wished we could’ve taken a photo with the whole group. But the group had already started packing away their equipment and there were other things on schedule for the wedding that we couldn’t properly say thank you to all the performers.

Would you recommend a lion dance from Chau Luen to others planning a wedding or celebration?

I would recommend a lion dance from Chau Luen to all my friends and cousins who are planning an event, because it was so easy!

Janice did most of the planning, and all I had to do was pay. If I had a wedding planner, it would’ve been even easier. Additionally, since it won’t be my wedding next time, I’d be happy to take care of it for my friends and family if they want because I already know what to do.

Book your own wedding lion dance

We hope that this was helpful in seeing what the experience would be like to book a wedding lion dance with Chau Luen Athletics. If you want to book or even just want to ask us some more questions about the process, use the button below and one of our team members will be glad to help.

Book lion dancers for your wedding