Spot light: with Michelle Yang

Wedding Director Michelle Yang's job entails getting a million details right: flowers, photos, music, cake, color schemes, invitations, and it goes on. The list is so exhaustive it requires meetings with the bride and groom-to-be up to six months before the ceremony, she tells Shanghai Star Weekend.

Q: How would you describe what you do?

A: More like a good butler, who takes care of my clients and listens carefully to their needs, than a movie director, who tells everyone what to do, and when and how to do it. It's important to communicate with the couple at an early stage so they realize what is and isn't possible, and to have a back-up plan.

Q: What is the most memorable wedding you have directed?

A: "My Dream Wedding by Crowne Plaza" at the end of last month. It was actually the first online wedding reality TV show in China (broadcast in www.tudou.com). We selected a young couple from over 100 contestants and filmed their dream wedding over four episodes. They ended up getting a 100,000-yuan wedding for free.

Q: What did you do to make it special?

A: It was stunning. According to the bride's wishes - she is a flight attendant - I helped them set the "sky" theme of the wedding, using blue and white as the major background colors. When the couple took their rings from swan sculptures it felt like a scene from a movie. We also surprised the bride by filming a secret videotape for the groom to show.

Q: How has the industry changed?

A: People don't tend to have traditional weddings so much anymore. Themed weddings are getting popular now among those born in the late 1980s and 90s, who form the bulk of our clients. There is also greater flexibility now, as people get married whenever they feel like it. We don't really have "peak seasons" anymore in May and December like we used to.

Q: Do you get many wacky suggestions?

A: Yes, all the time. I guess a lot of young girls watch too many Korean dramas and get attached to the romantic scenes they see on TV. They suggest things like having huge fireworks indoors or wrapping the hall so it looks like an Indian tent with voiles. It's my job to tell the bride this is not realistic, or it's too dangerous. During this stage, a lot of their dreams end up on the cutting-room floor.

(China Daily 12/12/2009 page14)