Chinese wedding photography an elaborate affair
BEIJING/LONDON: Under a rare blue summer sky on London’s Westminster Bridge, Jiachun Lin poses in a flowing white lace gown and windtossed veil with her fiance Da Song.For Chinese couples, wedding photos are not simply about having a photographer show up on the big day.They can be elaborate affairs involving costumes, make-up artists, camera assistants and trips overseas, sometimes even underwater, and take up as much as a quarter of the wedding budget. Song, 28, will be tying the knot with his 24-year-old bride in China’s northeastern city of Harbin and believes it’s better to visit the pace than the studio. The photoshoot with UK Wedding set him back 1,000 pounds. UK Wedding is one of several London-based companies catering exclusively to clients from China.Living in a globally connected world and given rising incomes, young Chinese are increasingly looking to impress with lavish weddings that mix traditional elements and Western trends, complete with a walk down the aisle, bridesmaids, ushers and even a hired wedding planner. Revenue for China’s wedding services industry was estimated to have reached $24.6 billion in 2016, data provider IBISWorld said in a report this year. That covered car rentals, restaurant decorations, photography etc. The list of popular photoshoot destinations stretches from Indonesia’s resort island of Bali to London, Paris and picturesque blue-and-white Santorini in Greece. “Some people just want to photo famous landmarks in London like Big Ben and the London Eye,” said UK Wedding founder Jeff Lu. For those who cannot travel, Chinese studios bring the world to them, offering the chance to pose in front of a fake Greek village etc—all in a single appointment. Golden Ladies, one of Beijing’s 24x7 wedding photo studios, fills up with as many as 75 couples on a busy day.