No getting up early, no motorcade, no pick-up... One day in June 2023, in a small courtyard house in Beijing, Sheng Yunying, a post-95 Hunan girl, and her lover Sun Haozhe held a small wedding with a simple process and only friends attended.
"I will be immersed in the love, singing and smile of that day for a long time." Every time she recalls this small courtyard wedding, happiness and emotion will flood into Sheng Yunying's heart.
In recent years, minimalist weddings are becoming a popular wedding style among young people.
Saying goodbye to complexity and redundancy, young people’s pursuit of weddings is increasingly “simple” and “easy”, and they pay more attention to inner feelings.
Recently, a survey of 1,251 young people conducted by the China Youth Daily Social Survey Center and Wenjuan.com showed that 78.4% of the young people surveyed supported minimalist weddings, and 64.2% of the young people surveyed felt that minimalist weddings were held. The popularity of weddings is a reflection of young people's pursuit of individuality and freedom. 63.4% of the young people surveyed believe that minimalist weddings should eliminate bad customs such as wedding banquets.
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"This is a wedding that is truly ours"
Sleep until you wake up naturally, don't have to rush the process, and spend a lot of time recording happy moments with your partner.
During the ceremony, a warm collective oath replaced the traditional and sensational "handover ceremony".
During the after-dinner party, everyone waved glow sticks, sang, danced and played games, and laughter resounded throughout the courtyard.
"This is a wedding that truly belongs to us. We have many 'firsts', the first time we wear a wedding dress, the first time we write our own vows, and the first time we dance together." Sheng Yunying said.
"My wedding has a very small number of people, only about ten people." In September last year, Yu Jiawen from Urumqi, Xinjiang, and her lover held a minimalist wedding at an art manor on the mountain. Only their best friends attended, and the wedding ceremony was also complete. I thought of it myself.
During the party after dinner, they planned the process themselves and prepared prizes and gifts. "Let friends play games and win prizes together. Everyone will be happy, and we will be happy and satisfied."
As young people gradually take control of their own weddings, minimalist weddings are becoming popular among some young people.
The survey shows that 48.8% of the young people surveyed said that their ideal wedding type is a "simple and stylish wedding party", accounting for the highest proportion; only 21.3% of the young people surveyed would insist on holding a "traditional grand wedding ceremony."
In Sheng Yunying's view, the most important thing to delete in traditional weddings are some bad customs. Previously, she could always see videos on the short video platform showing the customs of the bride's family "sweeping the bride out" and cutting the "mother's meat", which made her She was very disgusted, "I especially can't stand the mother telling her daughter, 'After today, you will no longer be a member of our family.'"
"We still can't understand why we need to rent a car and drive around the city when we get married." Yu Jiawen and her lover did not attach much importance to the so-called "ostentation" in wedding planning. "We paid for and decided the wedding ourselves, and our parents also Everybody can understand.”
Data show that in weddings, the contents that the young people surveyed feel are most unnecessary are: prank games such as blocking doors (62.9%), customs such as wedding troubles (56.7%), and long and cumbersome ceremonies (50.5%).
Others include: excessively sensational sessions (45.2%), toasting guests (31.7%), motorcade to pick up relatives (29.6%), getting up early to prepare (25.6%), etc.
Yan Junkai, a wedding planner born in the 1990s in Suzhou, has been engaged in the wedding industry for more than ten years. He found that in recent years, more couples have consulted him about "three-no wedding" and "minimalist wedding" planning.
He said that the traditional wedding process is relatively tight, while the minimalist wedding is more free and more personalized. "You don't need to get up at 4 a.m. to put on makeup, sleep until you wake up naturally, take photos, and do whatever you want at the beginning of the ceremony." ".
Based on his previous work experience, Yan Junkai summarized three forms of minimalist weddings: first, "no fleet" and "no wedding", which simplify some processes; second, couples travel to get married and connect with the wedding banquet through live broadcast. Third, the whole wedding was very simple. There was no need for a master of ceremonies. I was the host myself and spent most of the time taking photos.
"Many couples don't even take wedding photos in advance, and just take photos on the wedding day."
"The photos taken on the wedding day are much better than the wedding photos. They are natural and real, and have commemorative meaning." Without the wedding reception, motorcade, best man and bridesmaid, Yu Jiawen slept until she woke up naturally on the wedding day and took a photo near noon. We took a group photo together, and then added a session where partners wrote "vow letters" to each other, and arranged a welcome dessert table with my lover. "What I remember most are these two sessions. This is the quiet time for the two of us. Only when individuals complete something together can there be a sense of ritual."
In the survey, 78.4% of the young people surveyed supported holding minimalist weddings.
63.4% of the young people surveyed believe that minimalist weddings should eliminate bad customs such as wedding banquets. 50.0% of the young people surveyed believe that minimalist weddings should be "low-cost and not luxurious." 49.2% of the young people surveyed feel that minimalist weddings should "The process is simple and not cumbersome."
Others include: small scale, few participants (42.9%), no groomsmen and bridesmaids (29.6%), emphasis on emotional and personal expression (29.4%), no wedding reception (24.5%), no motorcade (21.3%), etc.
Sheng Yunying's lover, Sun Haozhe, believes that the reason why Beijing courtyard weddings are relaxed and comfortable is because the attendees are all young people and have more common interests.
All traditional links are simplified, leaving newcomers more time for themselves.
Reject the "assembly line", young people need personalized wedding memories
Yu Jiawen and her lover spent a total of just over 20,000 yuan on a minimalist wedding. In addition to the 5,000 yuan spent on setting up the wedding scene, they spent more of their budget on photography and videography. “I think that day needs to be well recorded. ".
In the joyful atmosphere of the party, many real and natural happy moments were captured by the camera, and the final effect was also very good.
Although it was a small-budget wedding, they felt full of happiness.
"Minimalist weddings are simple and exquisite." In order to give the wedding the ideal effect, Sheng Yunying personally handled everything from the planning of the ceremony to the selection of every flower material.
In addition, photography and makeup are also important factors for them.
The data shows that 40.0% of the young people surveyed have a wedding budget ranging from 50,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan, 29.1% choose a wedding budget of 10,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan, and 100,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan. 22.6%.
Scene setting (53.3%), makeup (52.5%), and ceremony (50.1%) are the three most important elements in weddings that the young people surveyed consider them to be, accounting for more than half of them.
Yan Junkai started working in the wedding industry in 2012.
In his impression, the wedding scene decoration at that time was very simple.
After 2017, the development of the entire wedding industry seems to have achieved a "big jump", and the requirements for the traditional wedding "four kings" (referring to the officiant, makeup artist, photographer and videographer at the wedding - Editor's note) are taking place Changes: On the one hand, the demand for wedding officiants has decreased, and more couples choose to host this most important ceremony in their lives; on the other hand, the market has increasingly higher requirements for scene layout, photography, makeup, etc. "In the past, photography and videography may just be simple records. Nowadays, the film needs to have a good rhythm and a beautiful picture. Some even have to reach movie-level standards." He also found that the proportion of newlyweds participating in wedding planning on their own is also increasing. The higher.
At the wedding, Yu Jiawen tried to write the hosting script herself. When the ceremony was going on, she was emotionally moved and did not follow the script. She just said whatever came to her mind, but she felt that the on-site effect was not bad.
"Perhaps the wedding officiant said the same thing, and everyone was a little tired of aesthetics. When they saw us hosting the wedding ourselves, everyone looked at it very seriously and listened to us with anticipation."
For Yu Jiawen, the collective vows and the ring ceremony were the most touching parts of the wedding.
Although there were not many guests, when everyone picked up the vow cards and said the words "will you", she felt more sacred in her heart.
When the ring box was passed between everyone's hands, she felt that a small ring was given more meaning. "This pair of rings carried the warmth and blessings of everyone's hands, and was finally delivered to our hands."
"Although it was a minimalist wedding, every aspect was carefully prepared." Sheng Yunying recalled the days of preparing for the wedding. Every piece of music played and every stuck moment were planned and arranged by herself.
In order to make this wedding full of characteristics, she specially designed a rugged stone road when the couple entered. "Each stone brick is engraved with a representative lyrics, which symbolizes our love, all the way through." It's not easy".
In the survey, when it comes to which aspects of a wedding are essential, wedding vows (52.8%), ring exchange (50.0%), parents' speeches, and the couple's change of words (49.4%) rank among the top three.
"Many couples said that weddings can omit many aspects, but they need a memory point." Yan Junkai said that a couple once completed their wedding ceremony on a beach in Pingtan, Fujian, using the length of the coastline to symbolize years of long-distance love.
"Nowadays, young people no longer need an assembly-line wedding. What they need is their own personalized wedding memory."
What do young people expect from a wedding?
Sheng Yunying feels that marriage is a very important node in life and requires a "sense of ritual".
"Whether it's a minimalist wedding or a simple honeymoon, the key is to record life in this way."
In the survey, 75.9% of the young people surveyed believed that "marriage requires a ceremony."
64.2% of the young people surveyed believe that the popularity of minimalist weddings is a reflection of young people's pursuit of individuality and freedom. 61.6% of the young people surveyed believe that it is because young people's concepts are changing. Instead of "ostentation", they value feelings more. 51.2% of young people surveyed felt that this change was influenced by social media and the Internet.
"Nowadays, couples don't hold weddings as they did in the past. They just follow the traditional wedding process. Many couples want to treat the wedding as a party." Yan Junkai believes that the reason why many couples like minimalist weddings is because minimalist weddings are easy. Create a "sense of atmosphere".
The whole wedding is "fun" rather than "heavy", relaxed rather than cumbersome.
Yu Jiawen feels that the tediousness of traditional weddings makes many young people feel "very tired". After the whole wedding, the newlyweds may not have too many ideas of their own. They just follow the procedures and have explanations.
Organizing a minimalist wedding allows them to make their own decisions to the greatest extent. Although the budget may be small, they will feel more satisfied.
"Weddings in the past were more like an explanation between two families. Today's young people are more concerned about their own feelings." In Sheng Yunying's view, traditional weddings pay more attention to "ostentation." The larger the wedding, the more relatives and friends will be invited. It seems that the more you marry, the better you marry, and there is an element of comparison.
But today's young people don't need expensive wedding dresses or luxurious scenes. They care more about letting everyone feel the beauty of the wedding and the happiness of love.
"It's a change of perspective."
What do young people hope to gain from a wedding?
The survey shows that 59.4% of the young people surveyed hope to gain a happy and relaxed atmosphere, 50.3% of the young people surveyed hope to gain beautiful memories and commemorations, and 50.0% of the young people surveyed hope to have a personalized happiness experience.
It has been more than half a year since the wedding. Every time she opens the photos, Yu Jiawen will recall the scene of that day. She will still be moved when she sees the moment when the two cried when they exchanged vow letters. "This wedding is the certification of our relationship." .
"I think weddings are one of the most important moments in life." Sheng Yunying felt that at her own small courtyard wedding, those vows and sincere confessions were all to let her remember her original intention and serve a beautiful life. A moment of remembrance.
Among the respondents, 49.2% were married, 49.5% were unmarried, and 1.3% were others.
Post-00s accounted for 22.3%, post-95s accounted for 31.3%, post-90s accounted for 32.5%, and post-85s accounted for 13.9%.
The rate is 44.8% for men and 55.2% for women.
29.4% of the respondents came from first-tier cities, 37.5% from second-tier cities, 25.3% from third- and fourth-tier cities, 5.7% from counties or towns, and 2.1% from rural areas.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily trainee reporter Wu Xinyu reporter Wang Zhiwei Source: China Youth Daily