Till death do us party: Shanghai’s club weddings

What happened Shanghai couples who get married in a night club now have the chance to receive exclusive tickets to one of the world’s biggest electronic music dance (EDM) festivals. Starting November 14, Shanghai’s Huangpu District Civil Affairs Bureau is partnering with INS Land, a seven-story music and entertainment complex, to launch a nighttime marriage certificate experience in support of the local night economy. Running on Fridays and Saturdays through November 22, INS Land’s signature party space, The Oasis, will be transformed into a ceremonial hall, offering couples who have registered their marriage in Huangpu District an immersive, officially sanctioned certificate ceremony. A night to remember In addition to dedicated concierge service at the venue, a gold-medal registrar from Huangpu District will present a commemorative marriage certificate co-branded by the district’s Civil Affairs Bureau and INS Land. After the ceremony, newlyweds can continue the celebration at the club Friends, marking their first moments of married life in private booths. To extend the festivities, INS Land has also partnered with Belgium’s iconic EDM festival, Tomorrowland, which will host its first-ever indoor show in Shanghai on November 22. Couples who book the nighttime certificate service can receive exclusive tickets to the festival’s China debut, allowing the celebration of love to flow from solemn ceremony to a surreal music experience. INS (short for Into Nothing Serious) Land is rising as an innovator in China’s entertainment ecosystem. The company creates content- and IP-driven immersive adult playgrounds, blending e-sports, music, social spaces, performance, and dining. Spanning seven stories, the Shanghai location houses 20 connected venues, including nine distinctly themed clubs. The Jing Take The hashtag “Couples Can Marry In A Shanghai Nightclub” (#上海一夜店可现场登记结婚) has quickly surged on Weibo, amassing over 27 million views. The collaboration between Huangpu District’s Civil Affairs Bureau and INS Land has sparked widespread attention with its unconventional premise, delivering strategic returns far beyond typical marketing. Nightclubs have long carried connotations of informality and chaos. Through this collaboration, the Civil Affairs Bureau is undertaking a “new experiment in marital customs,” challenging traditional biases and elevating the nightlife setting into a socially recognized space for emotional ritual. At the same time, by embracing universal themes of love and happiness, INS Land positions itself as an immersive adult playground, capable of hosting both everyday fun and life’s major milestones, deepening its emotional and cultural impact. Winning over youth with unconventional partnerships Targeting young couples registering marriages — an audience with strong spending power and a keen appetite for ritual — INS Land taps into the backbone of tomorrow’s consumer market. The specially designed celebration booths for friends and family at FRiENDS also help the venue connect with people beyond typical nightclub-goers, expanding its reach to new circles. Commenting on the phenomenon, Shanghai influencer @G Monk Dong(G僧东) praised the creativity and precise targeting, humorously suggesting the Civil Affairs Bureau could partner with brands like McDonald’s or KFC — marry at McDonald’s and get a year of spicy chicken or register at KFC and receive 10 family buckets — to reach the “laid-back youth.” While tongue-in-cheek, such ideas underscore a key lesson for future brand marketing: in a homogenized market, crossovers with public services and other unconventional partners are becoming a new way to craft unique experiences and forge emotional ties with niche audiences. The Civil Affairs Bureau’s crossover list may have only just begun. The Jing Take reports on a piece of the leading news and presents our editorial team’s analysis of the key implications for the luxury industry. In the recurring column, we analyze everything from product drops and mergers to heated debate sprouting on Chinese social media.

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Till death do us party: Shanghai’s club weddings