Reasons to get married

(Images copied and pasted from Yahoo! News)


Reasons people get married (that I can think of right now):
1. for love, when two people love each other
2. for parents, when the parents want the couple to marry each other
3. for convenience

Last Sunday, once again, local TV stations followed another one of Apple Daily's stories. It was about a 50 year-old Taiwanese travel agency owner (with a supposed net worth of TWD 400 million), who married a 40 year-old Japanese woman (with a supposed net worth of TWD 700 million) whose family owns one of the largest traditional resorts in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan.

Here's the lead story that my co-worker wrote:
台灣旅遊界黃金單身漢，天喜旅行社總裁郭正利，今天迎娶日本籍溫泉首富千金。新娘據說在日本相親不下兩百次,最後才情定郭正利

這位真命天子,50歲才步上紅毯，郭正利母親一翻感性談話,讓郭正利淚灑婚宴現場,會選在今天九月九日結婚,他說,就是希望兩人的婚姻能夠長長久久

中午還穿著紅色鑲金日本新娘服,到了晚上,換上長尾白紗,這場全天的盛大喜宴,身價70億的日本名媛,跨海嫁給台灣旅遊大亨郭正利

唱情歌迎美嬌娘,從岳父手中接過未來的另一伴,也有40億身價的郭正利,今年50歲,見到兒子成家,母親開心又心疼

幽默又感性的一席畫,讓郭正利淚灑婚宴現場,這長跑十年的愛情,終於修成正果獻上一吻,

在麗緻飯店總裁延長壽的證婚下,日本名媛,成了台灣媳婦,第一課,就是來段道地的閩南語

身價超過百億的夫妻倆,讓眾人見證了兩個不同文化,卻情有獨鍾的浪漫婚宴I
(soundbites missing)

I was reassigned to help cover this wedding because many of the guests were Japanese. I was told to write about how much he supposedly spent on the wedding:
台灣旅遊業大亨[郭正利]和日本石川縣名媛[新瀧祥子]的婚禮，開銷高達一千五百萬台幣。這是國內第一次有人把飯店的宴會場地，中午和晚上的時段全部包下來，而且還提供了300間客房，給日本來的貴賓住宿

2千份1000元的伴手禮，200萬

160桌，一桌1萬6的菜餚，256萬

300間一晚6000元的客房，180萬

1000個600元送客人的紅包、加上300萬的頂級和服、40萬燈光音響、胸花、喜帖、鮮花、竹子的佈置等等，旅遊大亨郭正利號稱這場婚禮總共開銷1500萬台幣

1500萬雖然很多錢，不過日本人包紅包也很慷慨，500名日本人，一人最少包9000元台幣，讓新郎收入不少，也讓招待帳房，鈔票數不完

在台北喜來登，中午請75桌，晚上85桌，是第一次有人辦喜酒，把場地一整天都包下來

每桌16000元的菜餚，菜色包括日本人最愛的海蜇皮、烏魚子、九孔、佛跳牆、還有台灣水果

不過大場面的婚禮，可是真是讓日本新娘的父母出乎意料

看來日本親家體會到，台灣人辦喜宴，面子也很重要
(soundbites missing)


Things that really stuck out that night:
The fact that Guo sent a press release about the wedding, with info on how much he is worth, how much his fiancee is worth and how much the traditional Japanese wedding dress cost.
How much Guo loved showing off - the commercials he's starred in, how much he spent on the wedding.
The rumor that he supposedly used to be gay (as reported by ETToday and as told to me by a friend who's worked with him before).

Take those and add them to these:
What Guo stands to gain from marrying Shintaki: securing good rates from hotels the Shintaki's and their business partners or friends own.
What Shintaki stands to gain from marrying Guo: securing a steady flow of travelers to their resort

And what my colleagues and I concluded was, it was a marriage of convenience. As Max put it, 只不過是個異業結盟的慶功宴

And to top it off, nearly every single TV station extensively covered the lunch AND dinner banquets, with SNG vans lined up around the block.