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Couples zero in on the perfect wedding day
By Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-12 09:12
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 WANG JING / CHINA DAILY
Newlyweds pose for wedding photos at a church in the Wangfujing area yesterday. |
Every one of the city's 3,000 to 4,000 wedding venues are likely to be engaged on Oct 10 as sweethearts scramble to tie the knot on an auspicious date.
Shi Kangning, director-general of the committee for the wedding services industry, predicted that Beijing's hotels and restaurants will be bursting at the seams.
"People tend to study the Chinese almanac before selecting a wedding date," he said. "Oct 10 in the year 2010 is one of the most auspicious dates to get married, according to the almanac."
He said the day is a perfect date for the perfect wedding because it includes three 10s, which many Chinese people interpreted as shi quan shi mei which means "perfect in every respect".
A saleswoman at the Jianguo Garden Hotel, surnamed Li, told METRO all three ballrooms have been reserved for the date since before Spring Festival.
"I often receive phone calls requiring information about wedding banquets on Oct 10," she said.
Many other hotels, including the Beijing Hotel and the Peninsula Beijing, are also fully booked for Oct 10.
"Moreover, it is a Sunday, a day on which most people invited by the newlyweds can come to the wedding," Shi said. "The post-90 generation (people born in the 1990s) has reached marriageable age and we will witness a record number of people getting married in the coming years."
But Shi suggested people planning their big day avoid following the herd when it comes to choosing a wedding date.
"The price will be more expensive if everybody does it on the same day," he said. "It is a unique moment for the new couples, so they should choose a date suitable for themselves."
The cost of hiring a wedding planning company will also increase if more people want the services of the same company on the same day.
Zhao Jinhong, vice-president of the Jinyuangu wedding planning company, gave an example. She said the cost of renting an S600 Mercedes-Benz on a regular day is 1,400 yuan but it will shoot up to 2,000 yuan on a busy day.
She said the average cost of a planned wedding is 20,000 yuan but that could go up by one-third on Oct 10.
"We have already signed three clients for Oct 10 and, with our current human resources, we can only do four weddings on any one day," she said.
A survey by China Investment Research Consultant shows the average wedding last year cost between 30,000 and 40,000 yuan. In 2005, people spent an average of 20,000 yuan.
The survey found 88 percent of newlyweds had professional wedding photos, 49 percent hired a wedding planning company and 78 percent had a hotel celebration.
Because Oct 10 is a Sunday, the marriage service office of Beijing civil affairs bureau is not scheduled to be open. An employee, surnamed Zhang, told METRO they have not yet made a decision on whether to open for the special day.
According to statistics from Beijing civil affairs bureau, 19,132 couples flocked to public marriage registration departments on Sept 9 last year. That date included three nines and was seen as auspicious because nine sounds like the word for "longevity" in Chinese.
