LIN DAN'S WEDDING, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

TWO YEARS after they were married, China's badminton hero, world number one and two-time Olympic gold medallist Lin Dan finally fulfilled the promise he made to his wife Xie Xingfang and gave her the wedding banquet of a lifetime.

From the dreamy setting of the hall to her specially designed wedding gown and the invitation cards in the form of a Beijing Olympics ticket—complete with a Zbar barcode with the words "I love you forever"—the ceremony was dubbed by Chinese media as the "wedding of the century".

The couple had chosen a "double eight" day (the eighth day of the eighth month on the Lunar Calendar) to hold their banquet at the Beijing University Of Technology gymnasium, where they competed in the 2008 Olympic Games. That was where Lin Dan defeated Lee Chong Wei for the gold in the men's singles while Xingfang took silver in the women's singles.

Accompanied by his best men—his childhood buddy and retired shuttler Bao Chunlai, his current team-mate Chen Jin and actor Ren Quan—Lin Dan began the day by picking his bride up with a convoy of cars by Porsche.

"Going to bring my wife back, take a photo with my parents first," he tweeted just before 9am.

At the hotel where she was staying, Lin Dan had to pass several "tasks" assigned by the bridesmaids—actress Yang Jingru and shuttlers Wang Yihan and Li Xuerui. Lin Dan and his best men were made to dance to Swan Lake and the K-pop song Nobody before he was allowed to see his wife in her wedding gown.

The dress, named "Feather Of The Spirit", was designed by Yumi Katsura and is believed to be one of the lightest wedding gowns in the world, weighing just over 600 grams.

The couple then went to the stadium for their media-free banquet, where Lin Dan, a lieutenant colonel in the People's Liberation Army, wore his military uniform while Xingfang changed into a traditional bridal dress.

 

Decked out in white and purple, the hall was filled with 10,000 white roses, a badminton racket-shaped stage, a four-tier wedding cake, and over 1,600 photos of the couple plastered on a wall. There was also a band playing jazz music.

One thousand guests, including gymnasts Li Ning, Li Xiaopeng, Liu Xuan and Lin Dan's coach Li Yongbo, attended the star-studded ceremony. Lee Chong Wei, who was playing the 2012 Yonex Japan Open final that day, posted his well wishes on Weibo and apologised for not attending the banquet.

Indonesian player Taufik Hidayat and Denmark's Peter Gade were also unable to attend the ceremony.

After exchanging wedding rings—their ring bearer was their pet dog Simba—Lin Dan shouted that he would love his wife forever and that he was happier than when he won the Olympic gold medal. He then wished aloud that they would try to start a family as soon as possible.

Chinese media estimated that Lin Dan spent three million yuan (RM1.5 million) on the wedding, which included the costs for 200 security personnel, 10 florists, two wedding rings and several dresses. They also reported that the couple would hold a second banquet in Lin Dan's hometown of Fujian Province next month.

Lin Dan developed a crush on Xingfang, who comes from Guangdong Province, at a national youth team badminton training camp in his hometown.

"Someone asked me to look at a girl at the court and said, 'Look at that tall girl and the long legs'," he told a TV interview recently. But he didn't make a move because she was two years older than he was—he's now 29.

They met again after joining the national team, and in 2002, Lin Dan finally mustered the courage to confess his feelings to her. She, too, initially refused his advances because he was younger, but later gave in to the sincerity of his emotions.

Their relationship became public at the 2004 Thomas Cup in Jakarta. After winning the cup for China following 12 years of defeats, an overwhelmed Lin Dan rushed to the bench and spoke intimately with Xingfang.

At the time, media reports suggested that he kissed her, although he denies it. "We didn't kiss, I remember clearly. I just told her, 'We're both the world champions now'," Lin Dan recalled. (Weibo)