A couple dressed in traditional Chinese costumes dart across Waibaidu Bridge. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

A husband carries his barefoot bride's uncomfortable heels for her. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Heavy foot traffic during a photo shoot invokes the phrase "We are gathered together." Photo: Tom Carter/GT

 

If a wedding is supposed to be the most important day of a woman's life, wedding-photo day may be even more important for modern Chinese couples.

In China nuptials tend to be notoriously unromantic affairs that place less emphasis on exchanging vows than on collecting hongbao (red envelopes filled with cash) from banquet guests. The real glory for brides-to-be seeking a fairytale wedding, then, often takes places months before matrimony, at a photographic studio.

In fact, most hongbao now goes toward paying off the tens of thousands of yuan incurred from pricey wedding portraits, an extravagant part of China's for-richer-for-poorer $100 billion wedding industry. Whereas the betrothed of decades past usually only sat for a simple black-and-white snapshot, today's portrait sessions are all-day affairs involving many costume changes and a variety of settings.

A groom holds his bride's monarch-train as they cross a busy street. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

"You may kiss the bride" … but don't mess up her makeup! Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Threadbare gowns loaned out by photo studios recall the wedding tradition of "Something borrowed." Photo: Tom Carter/GT

Every October in Shanghai, thousands of image-conscious couples descend on the Bund - decidedly China's most glitzy backdrop - for glamorous photo shoots in the trifurcate of wedding portraiture: the gothic Union Church, the steel-trussed Waibaidu Bridge and the picturesque promenade along the Huangpu River.

From dawn till the golden light of dusk, the iconic waterfront sees an endless procession of brides bedecked in something-borrowed frayed chiffon and their smartly dressed grooms being frantically led around from spot to spot by an entourage of attendants.

"Gaze affectionately into your husband's eyes!" "You may kiss the bride - no, don't actually kiss her, you'll mess up her makeup!" a little photographer with a big camera shouts at one bashful couple who can't stop giggling at the thought of having to display their affection in public.

A princess bride is pampered by makeup attendants. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

For a pose, a photo assistant offers a lift to the bridegroom. Photo: Tom Carter/GT

In between awkward poses, brides are doted on by makeup artists, who true-coat their faces with concealers and powders and primers while their paramours sit idly on the street curb, straining to stifle their yawns lest their makeup might also have to be reapplied.

Wrinkles and blemishes, out-of-place hair, unsightly shadows as well as a full-body digital nip-and-tuck will be corrected during post-production - for the amount of money being spent nobody wants to see their natural selves in these uber-glamour shots.

The heavy vehicle traffic that blights Waibaidu Bridge will also be photoshopped out of the pics, as will all those pesky passers-by. Thanks to modern technology, the eternally hazy urban sky will become blue, too, making every day in Shanghai a nice day for a white wedding.