Hong Kong celebrity couple tied-the-knot in Manila!

[via China Daily] Finally after nine years of courtship and one year of registered marriage, Hong Kong TV celebrity Dickie Cheung and actress Zhang Qian had a formal wedding ceremony to mark the occasion held in the Philippines on January 12, 2009.

The local government has extended a warm welcome to the two, in particular to Zhang Qian, who was tourism ambassador to the Philippines last year. With assistance from the authorities, the ceremony was held in the 400-year-old San Agustin Church in Manila, and ended off with a large firework display, Cheung told the Ming Pao Weekly.

Popular TV hosts Dai Jun and Li Jing hosted the event; among the celebrity guests invited to the wedding ceremony were Andy Hui, Edmund Leung, Han Hong, Sammi Cheng and William Soo.

The couple has invited nearly 200 guests to this all-expenses-paid event, Cheung says.

Decked out in local traditional wedding dress, the two lovebirds had a pre-wedding photo shoot on Saturday (please see above) at the exclusive Club Punta Fuego in Batangas, a port city near Manila. Their outfits were provided by the Philippine Tourism Authority and were designed by a Filipino designer using pineapple fibers.

Dickie Cheung and Zhang Qian started dating in 1999 as co-stars on the TV serial “The Legend of Chen Mengji”. Zhang Qian was reported to be pregnant in mid-2007 but had a miscarriage in her eighth month of pregnancy in early 2008.

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The couple is the second HK-based Chinese celebrities to wed in the country in recent years, the first being Nicolas Tse & Cecilia Cheung who were wed in a private ceremony in Amanpulo back in 2006.

Zhang Qian wore a white wig during their wedding ceremony. She later told reporters that it was her idea to wear a white wig and have the white head decorations to symbolize the Chinese saying “white hair till old”.  Having their ceremony held at the centuries-old San Agustin church is also symbolic because the structure has been through many natural disasters in the past, but still, it stands strong today.  They hope that their marriage would be the same too — by being able to go through challenges but remain strong.

Here are more news and photos about this celebrity wedding:

• Official wedding photos uploaded in Lito Sy’s multiply album
  
• Dicky Cheung and Jess Zhang have tied the knot (TVB News World)
• Dicky Cheung married Jess Zhang in Manila (China View)