"It is not easy to arrange a wedding this year, such long queues!" sighed Ms. Bi, who plans to get married with her boyfriend this year, at the sight of the over-packed business hall of a wedding service company.

Conservative estimate of China Association of Social Workers shows that Beijing residents will splash out more than 3 billion yuan (US$375 million) on wedding this year.

"We only received two orders during our trial operation last December, but since the New Year's Day, we have arranged 14 wedding ceremonies," said a staff member with a wedding service company in Beijing's Xidan. The rapid heat-up of the wedding service market after the Spring Festival have taken some wedding service companies by surprise.

Beijing Daily reported that it has become very difficult to arrange a wedding on such auspicious days as June 6 and May 18 with several large wedding service companies in Beijing at present.

"Affected by some folk customs, the number of brides and grooms fell sharply last year, with merely 100,000 weddings taking place in Beijing," said Shi Kangning, director general of the wedding service industry commission of China Association of Social Workers. He estimated that the figure is likely to exceed 120,000 this year.

"Based on earlier records, about 50,000 weddings of the 120,000 will be arranged by wedding service companies, and the average expenditures of a wedding range between 30,000 to 50,000 yuan."

Hence the weddings alone mean 1.5 billion yuan of business, plus spending on wedding dresses, jewelries and other items, Beijingers will splash out at least 3 billion yuan on wedding this year, and this figure does not include long-term investment in houses and cars brought along with weddings.

(China News Service February 22, 2006)