'Bare' nuptials on the rise 'to save resources'

SHANGHAI - Disposing of those cockamamie ceremonies and expensive banquets, the eco-friendly "naked" marriage is the choice of a small group of urbanites.

"It was our mutual desire to have a plain wedding," said Zhang Wen, a 30-year-old magazine founder in Shanghai, speaking also on behalf of his wife. "In our opinion, a wedding is a personal issue instead of a social gathering. It appears to me that the conventional wedding is a kind of externalism."

The so-called bare marriage or naked marriage refers to a desire to hold one's wedding without ceremony, a photo shoot, honeymoon and, sometimes, even no wedding ring, house or car. The cost of the cheapest bare marriage is just 9 yuan, with the fee going to the marriage registration office of the Department of Civil Affairs.