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Chinese bride in world's longest wedding dress

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-06 19:42

CHANGCHUN: A Chinese bride spent her wedding day dressed in a 2,162-meter-long wedding gown, which was handmade by her groom's family, Thursday in Northeast China's Jilin province.

Zhao Peng and his bride celebrate at their wedding ceremony in Jilin city, northeast China's Jilin province Thursday August 6, 2009. [Asianewsphoto]

More than 200 wedding guests took more than three hours to completely unroll the wedding dress, and pin 9,999 red roses made of silk on it Thursday morning, before the bride put on the dress.

The plan was elaborated by the groom Zhao Peng, a 28-year-old railway worker, as he wanted to challenge the current Guinness World Record of a wedding dress of 1,579 meters long.

He said he has applied to the London-based Guinness World Record through its official Web site, and would send the wedding video to the Guinness headquarters.

"Both the length of the dress and the number of silk roses pinned on the wedding dress can make history. But it doesn't matter whether I can successfully register it on Guinness," said the groom.

Zhao first unveiled the dress on Aug 1 in the same park, and measured the length in front of journalists from 13 Chinese newspapers, radio and TV stations.

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After the wedding on Thursday, he cut the dress to 1,984.1022 meters, the number of his bride's birthday.

"I also had 608 crystals stitched on the dress in memory of our 608 dating days, starting from the first time I met with her," he said.

The 25-year-old bride, Lin Rong, who is a school teacher, laughed and cried at the romantic gesture.

Zhao said he was actually inspired by the world's record of the longest wedding dress made in Romania in April when he planned his wedding.

"I do not want an ordinary wedding parade or banquet," said the groom, "nor can I afford the extravagance of a hot balloon wedding."

He bought the materials and asked his relatives for help in making the wedding dress by hand, which has taken three months to finish, and cost him some 40,000 yuan ($5,856).

But when he first came out with the idea, it was strongly opposed by his family.

"It is a waste of money in my opinion," said Zhao's mother. "Though I understand that he wants to show his love on the big day."

Zhao finally persuaded the whole family. His aunt, a dressmaker, agreed to design the dress. Other family members helped search for wedding information, select dress patterns, buy the materials, do lacework, make the silk roses and stitch crystals on the dress.