Another ten years has gone by. Spending 100,000 yuan on a wedding is nothing rare. The average expense has grown at least three to five times, without counting the price of a wedding flat, which could soar beyond one's imagination.
The modern generation expands their materialistic desires without full awareness. Whenever an expensive wedding is held and reported on, another vicious circle of luxurious competition begins.
Parent-funded "projects"
Public affordability, however, lags behind the expanding desires. Parents, in the end, are the ones paying the long bills.
Meng Hui just married this past National Day holiday. The betrothal gift of 66,000 yuan was within the reasonable range from 50 to 100 thousand yuan in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province.
A new flat and car were financed by the bridegroom's family at over 400,000 yuan and the bride's family at more than 200,000 yuan.
Adding other kinds of expenses, their big event has "contributed" no less than 700,000 yuan to the GDP. The couple was able to profit 14,000 yuan from the banquet though, thanks to the "red envelopes" (a traditional way to bless the newlyweds by putting money inside a red envelope).
To sum up, their wedding created a consumption of more than 800,000 yuan, which could hardly be afforded by their annual salary of some 70,000 yuan disregarding the banquet part.
In these cases, parents have to spare all efforts to support their only child for what is probably the most important event in their lives.
After all the joy for the newly-joined and worry over the paradoxical materialism, whether the couple will live a happy life together does not have a direct relation to the cost of their wedding.
"Those weddings best remembered for a lifetime are usually simple and with true sentiments," said Tai Kejian, expert at the Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. Weddings that explore a novel but unique idea, like a green wedding or a bicycle wedding, will be cherished for a lifetime.
