Want to get married in Shanghai? You may have to wait until 2010

The Shanghai Daily had an interesting story today in its paper version. It turns out that most good wedding venues in Shanghai are fully booked on weekends and holidays until 2010. The reason according to the local paper is a surge in weddings next year because many people postponed their wedding plans after the Sichuan earthquake in May. Honestly, that sounds a bit strangy to me. The earthquake certainly had a big impact for a few weeks and maybe some couples postponed their wedding, but not so many that all wedding venues are suddenly fully booked next year.

I think the real reason is that people have more money than before, and young couples naturally want to show off their “wealth” during their wedding. But likely the number of high-end wedding venues has not increased too much, leading to longer waiting times. My advice to couples that want to marry next year but cannot get their preferred location: be creative!

If you cannot get the Okura Garden Hotel until next November (the article gave this location as an example), look for a different venue that you can decorate nicely and get a good catering service. For the price of a 5-star hotel you can get a lot of nice other locations. An additional advantage is that people will actually remember your wedding instead of confusing it with many other weddings that were exactly the same.