Well, my friend would vouch for this one, I was never a typical girl who had big wedding dreams, I always wanted to discover the world rather than go through the whole arranged marriage drama in India so what did I do? I got married in China and my marriage certificate is in Chinese!
My husband and I had been together for a few years now and he finally popped the question in Tokyo on New Year’s Eve, truly a beautiful moment. We were inside the Tokyo tower, overlooking the city and fireworks on Disneyland.
We did the official engagement in India in Feb with family. China as a country played a special role in bringing us together so we both agreed to do a Chinese wedding to keep it as a memory of a lifetime.
- Both of us needed a no objection certificate from our respective embassies. Please note as a foreigner you need to be on work visa (residence permit) to be able to get married. You cannot get married on a tourist visa
- The certificates needed to be translated into Chinese by a authorised translation company
- They required 3 photos with a red background so we got our pictures taken
- We went to the Shanghai Marriage Bureau (82, Cao Bao Road, 3rd Floor, Room E) got our certificates checked and they gave us an appointment for the wedding ceremony for the following Saturday
- On the day we went to the Bureau, filled out a few legal forms and the staff then took us to the wedding room where they read out a few lines and then we said I do to each other. They handed over our red booklets (marriage certificates) to us and declared us married.
We were not charged with any money …