'Naked marriages' not for everyone

Getting rid of those cockamamie ceremonies, expensive banquets and "unnecessary" resource wastes, the eco-friendly bare marriage is the choice of a small group of urbanites.

"It's our wish to have a plain wedding. In our opinion, it is a personal issue instead of a social gathering," says 30-year-old Zhang Wen, a magazine founder in Shanghai, of his wife. "It appears to me that the conventional wedding is a kind of externalism."

The so-called bare marriage or "naked marriage" refers to holding one's wedding without ceremony, a photo shoot, honeymoon and sometimes, even no wedding ring, house and car. The cost of the cheapest bare marriage is just 9 yuan and the fee goes to the marriage registration office of the department of civil affairs.