Train Tickets as Wedding Invitations
Reported by Huang Haiying, Photography by Li Xiangyun
"Mr. Lei Yiming and Miss Luo Ling's train to happiness is about to depart. Please all guests prepare to board with your 'train tickets'..." At noon yesterday, at a restaurant near the Factory North Intersection, an unusual ceremony began. Strangely, every guest held a train ticket in their hand! What kind of ceremony requires attendees to hold train tickets?
Really Impressive: Invitation Designed Like a Train Ticket
At the scene, reporters saw that the exterior wall of the restaurant was adorned with a 21-meter-long, 2.4-meter-wide colorful banner depicting a train traveling on tracks. The side of the train was marked with "K166." The two dressed-up bridegroom and bride stood at the entrance of one of the "carriages," which was also the entrance to the restaurant, welcoming guests. Once inside the "carriage," the red carpet was replaced with a dark-colored carpet printed with "railway tracks," scattered with rose petals, leading directly to the main wedding stage.
Around 11:00 AM, guests arrived one after another at the wedding venue, each holding a "train ticket." A closer look revealed that these were not ordinary train tickets but specially designed invitations created for the wedding by the groom, Lei Yiming. The invitation was the size of a postcard and styled like a train ticket. On its front, a red background read "A Hundred Years of Harmony" with black font displaying "Lei Yiming" to "Luo Ling" and "K166" among other bold words. The main content invited guests to attend their wedding at "Factory North Intersection ** Tofu Restaurant," valid only for the day and time specified.
Confusion: Thought It Was a Joke When Receiving the Invitation
"Too impressive, he’s truly a remarkable person," said Mr. Yang, a friend of the groom, while giving Lei Yiming a thumbs up with the invitation in hand. "At first, I thought he was joking with me." Mr. Yang told reporters that he received Lei Yiming's invitation through someone else recently. Upon seeing it, he was shocked, "Can marriage be joked about?" He quickly called Lei Yiming to confirm, realizing it wasn't a joke and that the invitation was personally designed by him—"It's so creative!" Mr. Yang said he had never seen such an invitation before. Later, he took it home and carefully studied it, finally understanding the meaning behind those numerical "codes." "When I get married, I'll hire him as my full-time planner."
Like Mr. Yang, when the bride Luo Ling brought the invitations to her office and distributed them to her colleagues, everyone couldn’t stop talking about it, calling it "interesting." Within ten minutes, the news spread throughout the entire company, making this "train ticket" well-known. After interviewing several guests, almost everyone expressed surprise upon receiving the "train ticket," but once they understood, they unanimously praised Lei Yiming's intelligence and creativity. However, what truly amazed the guests was the fact that Lei Yiming himself hosted his own wedding.
Unusual: Groom Hosts His Own Wedding
At around 12:20 PM, as the wedding was about to start, everyone wondered where the host was. Suddenly, Lei Yiming grabbed the microphone and stepped onto the stage to deliver his welcome speech, “Dear guests, thank you for attending the wedding of Mr. Lei Yiming and Miss Luo Ling...” “What?!” The groom himself is the host? Everyone laughed.
This dual-role-playing groom and host handled both responsibilities effortlessly. “Now I will welcome my wife to enter…” Putting down the microphone, Lei Yiming picked up a bouquet of white roses and walked down from the stage to the bride standing at the end of the "tracks," kneeling on one knee, “I love you, marry me!” Amidst the enthusiastic applause of the crowd, the couple walked together on the "tracks." “The endless railway symbolizes our infinite happiness, and we will embark on this journey of happiness together,” Lei Yiming said while walking.
Subsequently, during the wedding, a 20-minute video narrating their love story from meeting to falling in love was played. While the video played, Lei Yiming served as the voiceover narrator with the microphone in hand. “A wedding isn’t about how much money is spent; it’s about whether it’s meaningful and brings happiness,” Lei Yiming told reporters. The entire wedding cost only 2,000 yuan, with many props being his own creative ideas. “We even offered him a free host, but he declined,” said Ms. Huang Ying, the head of the wedding planning company. It was the first time in Chengdu that someone hosted their own wedding.
Story: K166 Train as Matchmaker
"We met on the train." Lei Yiming said that the inspiration for the wedding came from their love story. On January 11, 2003, while studying in the second year at Yunnan University, Lei Yiming prepared to return to Chengdu for the Spring Festival. On the K166 train traveling from Kunming to Xi'an, he met Luo Ling. Luo Ling, then a sophomore at Sichuan Normal University, was returning from Emei Mountain to school and entered the carriage where Lei Yiming was sitting, standing next to him. With his outgoing and humorous personality, Lei Yiming fell in love with Luo Ling at first sight, approached her, gave her his seat, and thus they became acquainted, exchanging phone numbers. Over the next two years, they rarely met but kept in touch via the internet and phone calls. After graduation, Lei Yiming returned to Chengdu, and Luo Ling stayed by his side, naturally walking together. “We have never fought,” Lei Yiming said, adding that Luo Ling has a gentle and tranquil character, and they have never argued in six years of knowing each other.
To commemorate their first meeting, Lei Yiming, as an interior designer, fully utilized his imagination and creativity. "The 'train ticket' vividly reflects our love story," Lei Yiming said. The "train ticket" invitation also has special commemorative significance. He hopes that everyone who receives it will keep it and recall the joy of this day whenever they see it again.
Illustration Text:
Departure Time: "April 19, 2009, 12:00 PM," the time of the wedding;
1. The anti-counterfeiting code at the bottom of the "train ticket" includes the date when the couple met, "20030111," the wedding date, "20090416,"
2. Lei Yiming's birthday, "19831013," and Luo Ling's birthday, "19820819,"
3. The date they obtained their marriage certificate, "20090206 20090112" (the former Gregorian calendar, the latter lunar calendar),
4. "520601314," the groom's confession to the bride: "I love you, Luo Ling, forever."