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My big fat Beijing wedding

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-09 10:50

Spring is around the corner. Love is in the air. Wedding bells are ringing. But where are they coming from? It turns out more and more of these sounds of connubial bliss are wafting from grand hotels.

On a recent Saturday morning, a father was walking down the central aisle of a chapel, holding the arm of his daughter. She was dressed in a glorious bridal gown and the aisle was strewn with white rose petals in the shape of a heart. The music was not Wagner's wedding march, but a Hong Kong love song. Well, she was from the Pearl River Delta and met her husband at the Canton Fair, which was recounted in a video clip that drew cheers and laughter from the audience.

Under the guidance of a middle-aged lady, the couple exchanged vows and rings. The lady broke down before she could finish her usual questions. Smiling through her tears, she said it reminded her of her own wedding. Many in the audience were clapping their hands and wiping tears at the same time. Those were happy tears.

No, the lady was not a minister, and the chapel was not in a church. It's part of the Ritz-Carlton Beijing.

The Ritz-Carlton Beijing is the only hotel in the city with a chapel, and most people who celebrate their marriages here are not religious. That morning's ritual did not mention God, but the atmosphere was just as divine.

After the ceremony, all the guests filed down the staircase to the banquet hall. Had it been May, they would probably have poured out into the garden.

Speaking of gardens, Regent Beijing on Jinbao Street has two. The one on the fifth floor is perfect for a cocktail party. Legendale Hotel Beijing across the street has possibly the largest enclosed garden of its kind, all 550 sq m of it, where a wedding couple can erect tents and put on a party hidden from gawking neighbors.

While a garden is for guests, a grand staircase is for the bride to make a dramatic entrance. Both Regent and Ritz-Carlton have their stairways right next to the foyer; the former is lined with steel tubes, adding a hint of abstract beauty, the latter full of classical elegance. The Legendale has a flight of stairs curving up one side of the lobby, where many newly-weds make special requests for a photo-shoot.

All three hotels are top-notch, yet differ considerably in style. Regent Beijing is quite modern, but with a touch of feng shui, the traditional Chinese art of obtaining harmony between man and nature. A key element is water, which flows from a stream outside into the lobby in a continuous bronze circle and bubbles in a square-shaped granite centerpiece. Hanging above it is a Czech-made chandelier that looks like a funnel. It manifests the age-old concept "Heaven is round and earth is square".

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