New Propositions for Generation Z Weddings: Personality, Cost-effectiveness, and Better Face
Autumn is the peak period of weddings, and the wedding industry has always had the saying "Golden Nine Silver Ten".
During the National Day, the post-90s Beijing girl Lin Lin attended 3 weddings in total. The "protagonists" of the wedding were former colleagues, college students and childhood partners.
"The three weddings were held on the lawn, the homestay and the art center. The lawn was also equipped with a claw machine. It was like a garden party, and it was a sense of participation." Lin Lin said.
As the post-90s and post-95s have gradually become the "main force" of marriages, the individuality, preferences and even aesthetic tastes of young people are increasingly demonstrated in all aspects of marriage preparation.
According to the "2021 China Marriage Consumer New Normal User Behavior Insight Report", post-90s and post-95s oppose cumbersome and formalistic weddings, and resolutely say "no" to bad marriage habits such as marital troubles. They pay more attention to enjoying the happiness in the marriage process. Experience and consumption tendencies are becoming more rational and "intensified." 63% of post-90s and post-95s pay attention to cost-effective consumption.
For entrepreneurs in the industry, the individual needs of young people are also opening up new market imaginations in the wedding industry.
There are fewer "millions" and more personalized weddings
"We started to do wedding photography in 2014. At that time, weddings were still focused on ostentation. It is common to encounter'millions of big fairs', and now they are rare. Young people born in the 90s and 95s have weddings, even more. Being practical and individual, many people will choose small venues such as old houses and cafes." said Lu Yiwen, who founded Liushi Film Studio in Guangzhou.
Lin Lin attended a wedding held in a western restaurant. "The restaurant is not big, but there is a lake nearby. Sitting indoors, you can see the reeds shaking in the wind. The interior is decorated in gold and orange. It is very autumnal. The feeling. Later, these two colors were also used in my own wedding, and the atmosphere was very warm."
"Do it yourself" is Lin Lin's keynote for the wedding. "The venue has been set a long time ago in the sunshine hall of the building near the company. There is a long staircase on the spot, which has a sense of ceremony, is convenient for taking pictures, and can save the need for setting up a stage. I have been paying attention to the cost for a long time, and my family likes it very much. As for the other parts of the wedding, I can do it myself. The emcee also invites friends to come on."
A Bao, a post-90s Hangzhou girl, described her strategy of preparing for marriage with "Tian Ji horse racing": "Money should be spent on the blade. As long as the wedding is distinctive in details, it will be successful. The most important thing is to use small money and big money carefully. use'."
Specifically, Abao was more cautious when it came to large expenditures on wedding companies and wedding venues. “I first selected a mid-to-low-end price project from a wedding company with a good comprehensive evaluation, and then set a scenic spot on the recommendation of a friend. A total of less than 50,000 yuan was spent on a small venue."
Invitations, table cards, new house decorations, and background boards, which are relatively low-cost but relatively easy to shine, are Abao's "highlights" in preparing for marriage.
"The background board, welcome card, human-shaped standing card, and wedding candy box are all custom-made in the online store after I design the patterns myself. On the wedding day, relatives and friends will know that it is my wedding from a distance. Some of the wedding products can be decorated after the ceremony. The house, keep the memories of the wedding." A Bao said.
Many small accessories for Lin Lin's wedding were also purchased on e-commerce platforms.
"From flowers to rings, from wedding candy to balloons, as long as you take the time to choose, you can basically buy them online," Lin Lin said.
Yancheng entrepreneur Feng Yanjuan has been involved in the wedding industry since 2008. Suman Advertising Media Co., Ltd. founded by Suman now has a number of online shops selling table cards, garlands, sign books, signs and other wedding products.
"The newcomers who come to shop can be roughly divided into two categories, one is for low prices, and the volume; the other is for small weddings within 10 tables, generally only a few products are purchased in our store. Then go to other stores to see and gather the wedding products bit by bit. What they pursue is exquisiteness and individuality." Feng Yanjuan said.
Yan Yan, the founder of the wedding preparation service platform "Yanyan Wedding Diary", recorded hundreds of real wedding stories in Beijing. She also paid attention to the changes in young people’s attitudes towards weddings. Look', the pursuit is'show good, noble and face', weddings are more homogenous. Nowadays new couples are very clear about what kind of wedding they want and are willing to spend time to prepare, and second, they tend to be in budget arrangements. In rationality, I value my inner feelings on the wedding day more."
Industry segmentation, brewing new entrepreneurial opportunities
For many brides-to-be, choosing a wedding dress that suits their wishes is an important task during the preparation period.
Lin Lin still remembered the wedding dress that she bought online. "When I took it out of the courier box, the gold powder fell all the way. I almost thought it was snowing. The effect of the wedding dress on the body was worse than expected, even a bit funny."
After returning the wedding dress, Lin Lin went to the wedding dress studio to customize one.
"According to my observation, the biggest change in the wedding dress market is that young people's pursuit of personalization and design of wedding dresses has increased significantly. Starting from the premise, people will think of large tutu skirts, long tails, and bright rhinestones. The understanding of "sense of ceremony" is still relatively simple. Young people now know how to choose wedding styles that suit them and reflect their own aesthetic taste." said Yu Ai, founder of Yu Ai's wedding design brand.
Yu Ai has a studio in Beijing and Shanghai, and her entrepreneurial journey is also related to the personalized choices of young people.
"I used to be a makeup artist. During the wedding and makeup process, I found that most of the wedding accessories on the market were long veils and crowns, and the categories were relatively single, so I started to try handmade hairbands and other accessories. At first, it was entirely based on feelings. While doing it, the feedback from young people was very good, and word-of-mouth accumulated a little bit. Later, I had the opportunity to study in Paris and established the style of work before I started to engage in wedding dress design. Now the diversified and personalized aesthetics of young people are indeed It gives more space to craftsmen and also allows the wedding industry to be subdivided. Newcomers will carefully select, combine and match each link, and there will be countless entrepreneurial opportunities." Yu Ai said.
According to the data from the enterprise search, in the first eight months of 2021, there were more than 153,000 newly registered wedding-related enterprises nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 38%.
Among them, the number of registrations increased rapidly in June and July, reaching 25,500 and 24,600 respectively, an increase of 66% and 80% year-on-year.
Lu Yiwen’s studio has an average of 200 weddings each year. “From mid-September to one or two weeks before the Spring Festival, it’s the peak wedding season. The 22 people in the studio can be divided into different project groups and can take up to 4 wedding photography in one day. This Saturday, we took one shot each in Hangzhou, Huizhou, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou."
Pre-marriage videos, immediate cuts, and wedding movies are the photography services provided by Lu Yiwen's studio for the newlyweds.
In Lu Yiwen's view, the new couple's emphasis on immediacy and a sense of atmosphere poses new challenges to wedding photography.
"Take the same-day quick cut as an example. Before each wedding ceremony, the editor must quickly cut the video material taken in the morning into a short film within 3 minutes, and broadcast it to the guests at the wedding ceremony. The time is very tight. There must also be color, and pressure is naturally there. On the wedding night, the editor will also add the ceremony video to the short film and send it to the new couple the next day." Lu Yiwen said.
Compared with a wedding documentary filmed on a single camera, a 4-8 minute wedding movie has more detailed requirements in terms of equipment, number of cameras, lens design, sound collection, color correction, and editing.
According to Lu Yiwen, in addition to the recommendation of old customers, there are two main channels for getting customers for the movie: social platforms and wedding companies.
"To some extent, the wedding company is our'upstream' and will reach customers earlier than us, but if we blindly rely on the'upstream', it will not go far." Lu Yiwen said.
Yanyan has 8 years of entrepreneurial experience in the wedding vertical field. Recently, what she is doing is to recommend suitable wedding planners, photographers and wedding designers in the form of live broadcasts. "We have done research and many Wedding practitioners will spend one-third of their working time on receiving orders. If we can be an intermediary between the newcomer and the practitioner, it will not only save the time for both parties, but also reduce the intermediate links in terms of price.”
In the latest live broadcast of "Yanyan Wedding Diary", a total of hundreds of brides selected a wedding photography studio.
"Before the live broadcast, our team will screen the practitioners in various segments. For example, in word of mouth, in addition to investigating the professional abilities of the practitioners, we will also pay special attention to their sense of service. After all, weddings are not works of art. , Respect and tolerance for newcomers is the first." Yan Yan said.
"Happy business", "internal strength" is the key
Lu Yiwen still remembers the first wedding he filmed, "The groom is my classmate. The groom cried as soon as the ceremony was halfway through. I also cried behind the camera. Perhaps this is a certain magic of the wedding. Even if it develops Up to now, I have to bear more than 10,000 yuan in rent and more than 200,000 yuan in labor costs every month, but when I think of going to the wedding the next day, I still have a passion in my heart."
Lu Yiwen also pays special attention to whether the emotional expression of the newcomer is natural when pointing to the position of the newcomer and facing the camera.
"We are like documentary directors. We need to guide newcomers into their own stories in the atmosphere of light and shadow, and invest in real emotions. We then capture those inadvertent moments in the process. Usually people don’t pay attention to details, such as brides and brides. The image of parents hugging is often very moving in front of the camera.” Lu Yiwen said.
In Yanyan's view, what the wedding industry is doing is a "happy business". Whether you can empathize with newcomers is also an important criterion for testing the professional quality of practitioners. "In the past, the industry used to have larger venues and wedding scenes. It looks good. Now what everyone values is who understands human nature and love better. In fact, it is returning to the most primitive state, and the competition is'internal strength'."
Lin Lin believes that, in the final analysis, although the wedding is an event that has gone through several months of preparation and the process can be accurate to every second, the "finishing" touch will still fall on the emotions.
The photo session is the part that Lin Lin has the deepest impression of her wedding. "My love and I are high school classmates. On the wedding day, a lot of teachers and classmates also came. Flowing down the stairs".
(In the text, Lin Lin, A Bao, Yu Ai, and Yan Yan are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Li Xuan Source: China Youth Daily