Chinanews.com Beijing, October 10 (Zhang Yuhui) When the whole country celebrates together, it is also a good time to hold a wedding. This "Eleven", in addition to the couple, the important person at the wedding, the bridesmaid groomsman, is also busy for the upcoming wedding. What should I do if I can't find my bridesmaid groomsman? This class of lively and food-loving young people has created a new profession - professional bridesmaids (lang).
Photo by Cheng Qian
From "making fun" and "wanting to hug the table" to a career
During the "Eleventh" holiday, there are more couples holding weddings, and female college student Zhu Qing (pseudonym) is waiting for the invitation of the next bride on the trading platform.
"I saw someone posting and wanted to participate, so I copied and pasted a copy, so I started." Zhu Qing is a very energetic person, where there are activities, he likes to make a scene, and because he can eat for free, he has the idea of becoming a professional bridesmaid.
Bridesmaid rental service on the trading platform
Because she is still in school, Zhu Qing only accepts orders from the local school and her hometown. A single order of 288 yuan, including round-trip travel or transfers, as well as food and accommodation expenses the night before the wedding, plus red envelopes received on the wedding day.
As a professional bridesmaid, Zhu Qing is responsible for guiding the planning of the kissing game before the wedding and guiding the couple to purchase game props. The day before the wedding, the groom is usually asked to answer questions about the bride, or the two eat fruits tied up with a thread, etc., and also decorate the wedding room, according to Zhu Qing, "strong hands-on ability, skillful hands." On the wedding day, follow the bride to pick up her things throughout the day.
The process seems simple, but after a few weddings, Zhu Qing found that even if the bridesmaids are not the main characters in the wedding, there are many "doorways" in it. In general, bridesmaids should not be too beautiful and tall, nor too ugly or short, to look out of place with the bride. As such a foil role, Zhu Qing is very professional conscious.
In the reception process, in order to welcome the bride, the groom's side will give the woman's relatives and friends and bridesmaids "blocking the door" red envelopes. In order to enliven the atmosphere of receiving relatives, Zhu Qing will symbolically participate in the red envelope robbery, but will not be at the front. The local wedding reception has a "hidden wedding shoes" link, the groom's side has to take the red envelope to ask where the wedding shoes are, find it and put it on for the bride before leaving, at this time, Zhu Qing will not participate in the Tibetan wedding shoes, but leave this opportunity to get the red envelope to the bride's real relatives and friends. After the wedding, Zhu Qing will discuss with the bride whether to return the red envelopes and "blocking the door" red envelopes given by the families of both parties, and the bride usually happily asks her to accept them in order to repay her.
At the wedding, the photographer will take photos with the bride throughout the process, and as the bride's "classmate", "colleague" and "friend", Zhu Qing naturally wants to take photos with the bride. "For her own identity, the bride says what our relationship is, what is the relationship, the bride does not open her mouth and cannot take the initiative to say, no matter how little to speak." According to Zhu Qing, some rural weddings pay more attention to face, if you know that the bridesmaids are rented, it will appear that the bride is not well received, "not even a sister", especially if the man's relatives ask to conceal it, otherwise it will be considered that "the woman's family has no one to support". Zhu Qing gradually learned to disguise herself smoothly, obfuscating or fabricating an identity.
"I will continue to do it whenever I have the opportunity." Can make money, can make fun, eat for free, and can go home to see his parents, Zhu Qing thought to himself, such a good thing, no one should be unwilling, right?
Contradiction and emotion
No matter how well prepared, the wedding day will still be hectic, and conflicts are inevitable, especially in the reception process.
Zhu Qing has encountered it several times. Once with a wedding, the best man did not understand the "rules" of receiving relatives, so he rushed in directly when the woman's relatives and friends blocked the door, and hid the props of the kissing game in order to ask for red envelopes. Some bridesmaids rushed up to grab props and got into an argument with the best man, and in a round and back, the bridesmaids were scratched, and the atmosphere suddenly became awkward.
"When encountering contradictions, you must solve them without humility, you must not make trouble, the scene is chaotic, and the newcomer's face will not be good-looking." In this case, Zhu Qing will stand on the side and wait for the cameraman to arrive, and as soon as the camera swings, the game will naturally start, and the person hiding the props will naturally take out the props. In addition, she will not personally participate in the "blocking the door", which can cause collisions, which are generally done by the woman's relatives.
To sum up in Zhu Qing's words, as a professional bridesmaid, you cannot take the initiative to create and participate in conflicts, "you must do your best, but also try not to add chaos and do not help."
The wedding is a combination of all kinds of worldly conditions, there are laughter and tears, contradictions and touches. One of the weddings that touched Zhu Qing the most was about the sisterhood between a bride and her bridesmaids.
Not long ago, in September, a bride contacted Zhu Qing. Because of the distant marriage and the late marriage, some of the bride's sisters are in other places, and some have already started a family and give birth, so they have to entrust Zhu Qing to be a bridesmaid. But at the wedding, one of the bride's sisters rushed from out of town with the child. Zhu Qing noticed that she was a servant, dressed and made casually, and wanted to take care of her children from time to time, but her eyes never left the bride, and she kept taking pictures of the bride in the wedding dress with her mobile phone. She helped do this and that all day, until Zhu Qing beckoned her to eat, she ate a little in a hurry.
"At that moment, I felt that it shouldn't be me standing next to the bride." Zhu Qing was touched by this friendship, and she felt that this important moment should be witnessed by real sisters.
After the wedding, Zhu Qing posted a post on social platforms. "I also hope that my girlfriends will come to my wedding and I will cry for their sincere blessings. True love is not easy to get, I hope you newcomers can do it and cherish it. She wrote.
New demands for weddings lead to new occupations
Due to the late marriage, Xu Ning (pseudonym) did not find a bridesmaid near the "Eleventh" wedding date, and finally rented one for 500 yuan. According to her requirements, the bridesmaids must not be too short or too tall, but also fit their own eight figures, and cannot belong to the ox and tiger. Even if Xu Ning has various requirements, he can find a bridesmaid who can match him.
In addition to professional bridesmaids like Zhu Qing, who take orders on the platform, with the new demand emerging in the wedding market, bridesmaid rental agencies have emerged, bringing together girls who are willing to become bridesmaids and matching them with bridesmaids.
Bridesmaid rental agents have emerged
21-year-old Wu Qian (pseudonym) has a lot of experience as a bridesmaid and has been married to more than 50 times, in addition to running a bridesmaid studio on social platforms, connecting bridesmaids with different needs to bridesmaids. Wu Qian's studio has regular, intermediate and senior bridesmaids, charging from 358 yuan to 488 yuan, the higher the fee, the more experience the bridesmaids have, and the more services they provide. Among them, some senior bridesmaids have experience as wedding housekeepers, can provide the whole process service for the bride at the wedding, and can also help contact and dock the "four kings" of the wedding (emcee, makeup artist, photographer and videographer).
China News Network also contacted a bridesmaid company that now has tens of thousands of professional bridesmaid groomsmen and provides wedding services for couples across the country. Compared with general leasing agents, the bridesmaids and groomsmen under the company need to pass the training assessment and sign a lease contract after determining the candidate with the couple.
"Professional bridesmaids have emerged with the emergence of new demand for weddings, corresponding to such a market demand, and have produced new types of work, which I think is a manifestation of the refinement of the division of labor." Zhang Chenggang, associate professor at the School of Labor Economics of Capital University of Economics and Business and director of the China New Employment Form Research Center, said in an interview with Chinanews.com that it is more efficient to use market-oriented solutions to solve wedding problems, and can avoid some personal problems, such as not finding the bridesmaid groomsman, losing face, not wanting to trouble relatives and friends, and so on.
At the same time, at the critical moment of his life, the wedding needs to adopt this market-oriented way to solve the problem, Zhang Chenggang feels a little pessimistic. "For the bride and groom, it is definitely to hope that the person closest to them will become the bridesmaid and best man, but because everyone's time is so tight, the cost of being a bridesmaid groomsman is too high, so in this case, we have to adopt a market-oriented solution." Zhang Chenggang said.
Regarding this emerging form of leasing, Zhang Chenggang believes that the bridesmaid and groomsman and the couple are not labor and employment relations, but equal civil relations, so the market should be allowed to fully develop. When it develops to a relatively large scale, corresponding industry guidance may appear, but it is more dependent on the market to regulate. (End)