The bride wore a wedding dress and rode in an electric cart, while the groom, Liu Da, cycled alongside her
Six electric carts + 60 public bikes for a 20-km “zero-emission” journey
Oxford graduate holds low-carbon “bride pick-up”
No luxury cars, no pollution — yesterday, a low-carbon wedding unfolded in Hankou.
The groom is Liu Da, a returned overseas student who graduated from the University of Oxford in the UK, and the bride is Zhang Wei, a native of Wuhan. The wedding convoy consisted of six flatbed electric carts and 60 public bikes, traveling a round-trip distance of 20 kilometers with “zero emissions” from Huangpu Avenue to Chongren Road.
The groom rides a public bike to pick up the bride
At 6 a.m. yesterday, 27-year-old Liu Da got up to prepare, putting on a watermelon-red shirt, black trousers, and black leather shoes.
By 8 a.m., flower-decorated electric carts and 30 public bikes adorned with colorful ribbons had gathered on Huangpu Avenue. Liu Da led the way, cycling along Riverside Avenue toward the bride’s home — a 10-kilometer ride. Following behind were 30 people, including Liu Da’s classmates from Oxford, friends and relatives who came from all over the country.
At 9 a.m., Liu Da arrived at the dormitory building at No. 197 Chongren Lane. Neighbors gathered around, picking up wedding candy and commenting: “Where’s the bride’s car?” “The bride is riding in an electric cart? How novel!” “Simple is good too!”
The bride sits in a flatbed electric cart to depart for her wedding
After 40 minutes of celebration, the bride, dressed in a white wedding gown, came downstairs and got into a flatbed electric cart decorated to look like a vintage car, serving as the main bridal vehicle. She looked serene. The same age as the groom, she works in the finance industry.
The 30 bridal bicycles met up with another 30-bike bridal party team and followed the main bridal vehicle back to the new home on Huangpu Avenue via Jingshan Avenue and Jiefang Avenue.
Along the way, many people stopped to watch and take photos with their phones. There were also many weddings that day, and at the Xunlimen intersection, the “electric cart + bicycle” wedding procession waited at a red light alongside a bridal convoy led by Mercedes-Benz sedans. Passersby’s attention was drawn to the couple on the electric cart.
After accompanying the bride for half the journey, Liu Da switched to cycling and followed on her right side. They arrived home at 10:55 a.m.
The newlyweds plant trees by the riverbank
The wedding ceremony was held in the afternoon at the riverside municipal square. At 4:10 p.m., Liu Da and Zhang Wei set off from their new home, still cycling to the square.
At 5:38 p.m., the ceremony began with an environmental theme: the newlyweds planted a silk tree. The groom watered the base of the tree, and the bride tied a green ribbon. A riverside staff member handed the groom a wish plaque inscribed with their names and a low-carbon declaration, which he then hung on the tree, planting it in the riverside “Love Forest.”
“We don’t care about a luxurious convoy”
Liu Da was born in Tianmen, attended elementary and middle school in Wuhan, went to the UK for high school, and has now returned to Wuhan to start a business. Liu Da also has a special background — his father is Liu Chunqi, chairman of Wuhan Xinfeld Group.
Liu Da said: “I learned to ride a bike when I was 5 years old, rode to school in middle school, and my first purchase abroad was also a bicycle. My father has done many businesses, but the one most valued by people is the public bike initiative. I hope my wedding can also be low-carbon, extending the concept of environmental protection from work into life. When I told my wife, she agreed.”
Liu Da’s close friend Yu Haichuan, who has settled in the UK, flew back specially to be the best man. He said: “We don’t care about a luxurious convoy. Abroad, weddings are simple — there’s no such thing as a convoy. Just dozens of relatives and friends holding a ceremony at church, and that’s it, maybe followed by a buffet. If I get married, I will definitely reflect environmental values too.”
Low-carbon wedding total cost is around ten thousand yuan
How much did this low-carbon wedding cost? Groom Liu Da roughly estimated yesterday that the total cost for the wedding vehicles and ceremony was around ten thousand yuan.
“Nowadays, it’s common for couples to spend several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan renting wedding cars.” A person in charge of Jingyuan Wedding Cars said yesterday that just last week, a client rented a 10-meter-long Hummer as the main bridal car, with 17 BMWs as followers. After discounts, the total rental cost was about 30,000 yuan.
Luxury vehicles such as Hummers and stretched Lincolns used as main bridal cars come with hefty rental prices — for 4 hours and within 60 kilometers, the price is over 5,000 yuan. Audi rentals generally cost around 500 yuan, stretched Mercedes around 1,300 yuan, and stretched Lincolns around 1,500 yuan. In Wuhan, a bridal convoy usually consists of at least 6 cars, but sometimes 8, 10, or even a dozen or twenty.
As for the wedding ceremony itself, options like underwater weddings, opera-themed weddings, 3D weddings, symphony weddings, and traditional opera weddings are emerging one after another, with costs continuously rising. Luxury weddings costing over 100,000 yuan are no longer rare. Multiple wedding planning companies said yesterday that in recent years, the cost of weddings in Wuhan has been increasing by about 20% annually. Weddings costing over 100,000 yuan are not uncommon, and some couples even spend 700,000 to 800,000 yuan on their big day.
Young people embrace low-carbon, simple weddings
Feng Fang, a member of the post-90s generation, witnessed the “electric cart + bicycle” wedding style yesterday and expressed a strong fondness for this novel and environmentally friendly form. She hopes to get married in a similar way herself, or even skip any ceremony or fanfare and just go on a trip — “The form doesn’t matter at all. Marriage is between two people.”
Yao Xiangyu, a 12-year-old sixth grader at Jiang’an Jinghan Primary School, rode more than 10 kilometers yesterday with the bicycle wedding procession and found it “a lot of fun”: “At weddings I’ve attended before, I was always in a car. This is the first time I’ve ridden a bike.”
An adult next to him teased, “Is driving better or riding a bike?” “Riding a bike.” “Will you ride a bike when you get married?” “Yes!”
Dong Bin, president of the Hubei Wedding Industry Association, said that different people have different consumption concepts. If couples have the financial means and are willing to spend more, that’s understandable, but a luxurious wedding is not the only way to express individuality. Low-carbon weddings can be just as fashionable. Replacing traditional bridal cars with bicycles represents a green and environmentally friendly concept and reflects how modern Wuhan newlyweds are keeping up with the times in their wedding values. Wedding companies can appropriately and timely guide couples toward green and low-carbon wedding consumption.