Latest wedding trends on show in Shanghai

To many, spring is also the time for their life's big plan, their weddings. And no wakeup call needed to the wedding industry. Western style weddings are becoming big business in urban China.

At the country's biggest wedding expo, latest trends in jewelry, wedding dresses, photography, honeymoons and cars were all on show. The Chinese wedding industry is worth billions of dollars.

The three-day China International Wedding Expo wrapped up in Shanghai, Sunday. Expanded from its original conception in 2005, the exhibition covers every conceivable aspect of a soon-to-be-married couple's big day.

Between 8 and 9 million couples get married in China every year. The total cost - around 50 billion US dollars. The banquet is a key element of the big day. More and more couples are serving wine. Red is a color for celebration, so at the wedding feast, red wine is far more popular than white.

In China, as elsewhere, diamonds are an enduring favorite. A typical Chinese bride receives a ring in the point-3 to point-5 carat range. Nearly 90% of urban newly-weds in China want to remember the occasion with wedding photos. There are more than 100,000 wedding photography studios in China.

While China's wedding industry is in its infancy compared with Europe and the US, it's catching up fast. That's evident from sales of wedding dresses. In 2004 in the Beijing area, only 36% of brides bought a wedding gown. The percentage shot up to 61% in 2006. Now, many urban brides wear as many as four dresses on their wedding day.

Expanded from its original conception in 2005, the exhibition covers every
conceivable aspect of a soon-to-be-married couple's big day.