Qu Mengmeng and her husband Zhao Lei, who got married this May, wear green army-style uniforms to celebrate their big day. Photo courtesy of Qu Mengmeng
Qu Mengmeng and Zhao Lei envisioned their wedding as an unforgettable experience: a limousine escort and a banquet for hundreds of friends, relatives and business associates at the best restaurant.
And one of the key wedding memories was of course the all-important wedding pictures.
"My wedding album is not like my friends'," says Qu, 28, a Beijing-born lawyer as she flips through her photo album.
There are no soft focused pictures, no traditional Chinese qipao in sight, no white wedding gowns and no staged shots with flashy, expensive cars.
Qu, who got married this May, beams as she turns to the album, which displays pictures of the happy couple wearing green army-style uniforms.
They are smiling at each other as they stand on a countryside road or sit inside a humble courtyard home.
Both Qu's and Zhao's parents were zhiqing - young intellectuals who went to the countryside in the 1960s to live and work with farmers.
Qu says the older generation have so-called "red complex" (hongse qingjie) or nostalgia, for their youth spent in the countryside some 40 years ago.
The couple did not want a photographer who would direct them to pose.
"Everyone wants to be different on their big day and we wanted our pictures to blend in with our families and capture the moments with a real and natural feeling," Qu says.
A Chinese wedding photograph session, which takes place before the major celebrations with family and friends, is a ceremony in itself.
Couples spend a small fortune, usually 7,500 yuan ($1,000), and a lot of time in a photographic studio.
