McMemories are made of this

HONG KONG: Anyone can get married in a church or at a register office. But for more adventurous brides and grooms, the wedding location of choice might be a sandy beach or even a hot-air balloon. Or, if the happy couple lives in Hong Kong, perhaps McDonald’s.

The fast-food chain has been offering McWeddings since mid-February. The service is proving popular with the local population, and small wonder. The cost of a McWedding starts at US$ 1,280, compared to an average of $29,200 for a traditional wedding, according to the online media service ESDLife. The basic fee includes food and drinks for 50 guests, and there’s no need to queue up for service: meals are brought to the guests’ tables.

While alcohol is not served, no one seems to mind, according to Shirley Chang, managing director of Hong Kong’s 226 McDonald’s restaurants. Chang explains that the wedding toasts are made with sugary drinks, because sweetness is considered auspicious. “That’s why we toast with sundaes,” she told The New York Times. “You can have a lot of fun with soft drinks.”

"You can have a lot of fun with soft drinks." Shirley Chang

Gordon Mathews, an anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says there is no stigma attached to getting married at McDonald’s. “The generation getting married today grew up doing their studying at McDonald’s,” Mathews comments. “That was one of the chain’s prominent roles in the 1980s and 1990s — as a safe haven where students could study and stay off the streets.

“In the US and other places, middle-class or upper-middle-class people look down on McDonald’s,” Mathews adds. “But Hong Kong is different. A McDonald’s wedding wouldn’t be seen as tacky here.”

Since 2006, Hong Kong has permitted wedding ceremonies in locations other than places of worship or town halls. Now businesses offer weddings in shopping malls, on boats or underwater at the Ocean Park theme park. McDonald’s currently has about 60 weddings planned. “Everyone wants a tailor-made wedding, and everyone is working on picking the best dates based on the lunar calendar,” Chang says. “I had a traditional Chinese wedding myself. It was so formal and it seemed like everyone was so happy except for me. I was dressed so beautifully, but I couldn’t even eat. Now, the focus is on the couple having fun.”