Why Hong Kong couples are opting for no-frills weddings
With the average Hong Kong wedding now costing HK$300,000, many couples are forgoing the expensive banquet and complex rituals. Alan Yu meets the couples who, like him, chose to go small on their big day.
A few months ago, I got married. The ceremony happened in a conference room, in front of about 30 people, and took exactly an hour. I wore jeans, a shirt and black trainers.
My wife, Clara, and I are both 25, and had been dating for seven years. Neither of us had wanted to organise a huge banquet, rent expensive clothes or go through the complex rituals that are often involved in a Hong Kong wedding.
A few months before our big day, Clara, who is studying in Britain and flew back for the ceremony, called me in tears. Her parents had demanded a "bride price" (like a dowry, except the groom pays, not the bride's family) of HK$18,000 and wouldn't budge.
In the end, I obliged and we got married in the simple manner we wanted. My wife is a Baha'i (a monotheistic religion from Persia that emphasises the spiritual unity of all mankind), so we had a small religious ceremony and all who attended went for dim sum afterwards. The whole wedding cost HK$25,000.
SEE ALSO: Wedding crushers: Four Hong Kong nuptials planners arrested after couples say they didn’t receive services paid for
While some of our friends were shocked by our low-key wedding, more and more people in Hong Kong are opting for smaller ceremonies.
Getting married here is expensive - the average wedding costs HK$300,000, according to Ageas Insurance, which surveyed 2,025 people planning to get hitched between 2013 and 2015 - and made complicated by the number of rituals involved.
