More Chinese couples are opting to hold their wedding ceremonies abroad. (Photo : REUTERS)
A lot of people aspire to marriage. From wedding preparations to the event itself, the whole experience can be quite memorable, both in a positive or negative light. For young Chinese couples, however, marriage has become a very expensive aspiration.
For Gao Linling, a professor from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, two words that she used to describe her wedding in 2012 were "exhausting and expensive." Unfortunately, she's not the only one who feels that way about marriage.
Financing a wedding can put a major dent in the wallets of most young Chinese couples, often leaving them in debt. A budget of 100,000 yuan (roughly $16,000) is not enough for a decent wedding anymore. A banquet alone can cost more than 60,000 yuan ($9,700).
Some couples, despite their inability to afford a marriage, still try to keep up pretenses to please their respective families.
Under tremendous amounts of pressure to put on a good wedding for their family and guests, Gao and her husband went over budget and spent 200,000 yuan ($32,000) on their marriage ceremony. It's twice the original budget they have allotted, and equaled to both of their annual incomes.
Sun Jing and her husband, both Beijing locals, echo the same sentiments. The ceremony and banquet they funded were mostly just to please their parents.
The nightmare doesn't end for these couples, however, if expenditure is also included in the cost of marriage. Take Wang Shuang, a 27-year-old professional from Beijing, who spent a staggering 350,000 yuan ($56,000) on both his marriage and home in Hebei Province.
Since most young couples can't afford marriage, parents help shoulder their expenses. According to statistics, some parents help their children by shouldering 20-60 percent of the cost, while a privileged 14 percent of couples have parents who covered the whole cost of their marriage.
