McDonald’s Hong Kong launches in-house wedding service

A wedding can take years of planning and thousands of dollars to execute, and for many couples the choice of venue can be particularly tricky and expensive. Now, adding to the list of potential wedding day locations, McDonald’s Hong Kong has stepped up to offer its premises to engaged couples planning their big day. Whilst the idea of holding a wedding or engagement party at McDonald’s may seem undesirable to many western audiences, as the New York Times notes — quoting Gordon Mathews, an anthropologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong — “In the US and other places, middle-class or upper-middle-class people look down on McDonald’s […] But Hong Kong is different. A McDonald’s wedding wouldn’t be seen as tacky here.” Rather, McDonald’s has become a restaurant many Hongkongers now look to with a sense of nostalgia, remembering visits there as students in the 1980s and 1990s. What’s more, the Times also notes that in a country where the average wedding service costs USD 29,200, and the average monthly household income is roughly only USD 2,250, the fast food chain’s parties, starting at USD 1,280, present couples with significant potential savings. The emphasis of the McDonald’s website seems to be on relaxed fun over formality: “We can organize everything so that all you need to do is show up and enjoy a special day with your loved ones.” It’s a sense of fun reflected in the service itself, with wedding cakes made of stacked apple pies and sundaes substituted for champagne. A reminder, then, that the perfect day in one part of the world may be quite the opposite in another. However, don’t let this put you off — the wedding services industry continues to be highly lucrative worldwide. How could you make your mark, while keeping true to local tastes? (Related: DIY wedding rings — Event planning niche: wedding rehearsal dinners.) Spotted by: Judy McRae