Source: CRI

05-17-2008 11:29

At a Chinese wedding ceremony, the bride and groom usually greet the guests upon their arrival to the ceremony. But guests who attended a wedding at a hotel of Nanjing on Friday morning didn't find the groom.

The bride Qiu Yuanyuan (C) welcomes guests beside a large wedding photo in Nanning, capital of central China's Jiangsu Province, on Friday, May 16, 2008. [Photo: Xinhua]

Rao Xin, a pilot in China's land army on his wedding leave, received a phone call from his unit on May 15, just one day before his wedding day, and was commanded back to join in relief efforts in earthquake-ravaged Sichuan Province.

The young pilot and his bride Qiu Yuanyuan decided not to reschedule their wedding date. Instead, the theme of the wedding was changed to "care and love for the quake-hit areas" and the original romantic rituals were replaced with donation-collecting section by the bride.

Inspired by the couple, relatives and friends did not hesitate to open their wallets. The groom's family contributed 20, 000 yuan. The wedding agency donated its income from holding the festivity, and the hotel offered the rent of nearly 80, 000 yuan.