Good times for wedding expos

The 2018 Shanghai Spring Wedding Expo that took place at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center last month attracted about 178,010 people and raked in 1.294 billion yuan ($203 million) sales, according to organizers.

An 860,000-yuan order from Galleria, a one-stop wedding service company, was the biggest order placed during the spring wedding expo.

"The sales for our wedding expo are increasing every year," said Chen Yun, the manager of the wedding expo organizer. "The consumption upgrade for the entire industry is very obvious."

Established in 2005, the national wedding expo is one of the biggest in the country, providing couples a one-stop platform where they can acquire everything they need for their big day, including banquet bookings, photography, wedding planners and bridal gowns.

Over the past 13 years, the expo has been held 46 times in Beijing, 40 in Shanghai, 28 in Guangzhou, and in other cities like Wuhan, Tianjian and Hangzhou. The wedding expo always features famous brands, designers and celebrities. Some of its previous attendees include Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad and the White collection by Vera Wang. The annual sales garnered at the expos have consistently exceeded 10 billion yuan.

According to Chen, an increasing number of clients who were born in the 1990s are choosing individualized services.

"They want to create a new and original wedding. They want to have their wedding photos shot in an exotic location, not in studios, and an overseas wedding complete with their custom-made wedding dresses rather than rented ones," said Chen.

"We used to hold only two wedding expos in Shanghai every year, but now we have four - one for each season in March, June, September and December."

The Shanghai Summer Wedding Expo will take place on June 16 and 17.