Shanghai's wedding industry association is calling local couples to disperse their weddings and banquets to other months than the busy May, as the wedding industry is hardly sufficient to serve the upcoming wedding peak during the Labor Day holiday, which starts from May 1.
Of the 120,000 couples who are expected to wed this year, more than 20,000 are scheduled to hold their weddings in the holiday week, said Chang Lun, president of the weeding industry association.
As a result, wedding banquet prices during the week have risen by 10 percent, while the local wedding service firms had already booked out wedding cars before two months. The association has prepared seven cars to back up, Hai said.
In addition, the wedding ceremony masters have been in short supply, he added. More than 2,000 such masters are needed in the week while there are only 200 qualified professional masters in Shanghai. In alternation, some social celebrities are invited to take over the master job.
"In this case, we have to caution the couples that it's difficult to ensure good quality wedding service during such a peak period," Hai said, "and it has also put too big pressures on us".
He noted the industry association is talking with some local hotels to unveil favorite policies, as low prices and gift dinners, to encourage couples to move their weddings to non-busy periods. He expects the policies will be unveiled after June.
(Shanghai Daily April 22, 2005)
