Young Chinese couples planning weddings around the October National Day holiday are increasingly turning to Xiaohongshu to ask brands for sponsorships tied to their ceremonies.
According to an article published by Touzijie, "wedding sponsorship" has become a distinct trend on the platform. E-commerce Online, as cited in the report, said the Xiaohongshu tag had generated more than 10 million views and nearly 350,000 comments. Brand-backed weddings were once mostly associated with celebrities. The report says ordinary users are now getting similar deals.
Some couples are landing more than 20 brand deals for one wedding
One example in the article described a user who secured sponsorships from more than 20 brands for a single wedding, including wedding shoes, beverages, alcohol, food, and snacks. Another user, with only 600 followers on Xiaohongshu, reportedly received "gift money" support from five brands. The report also said one brand had sponsored more than 2,000 weddings in total, though it did not name the company.
The article described banquet tables carrying not only traditional wedding candy, but also gift boxes of spicy gluten snacks and milk tea. Brand signage was also placed in reception areas, turning the wedding venue into an advertising space for participating companies.
Heytea, Chagee and snack brands have already built wedding campaigns
E-commerce Online said the recent rise in wedding sponsorship requests reflects a reversal: brands entered the wedding scene first, and younger users later began calling out to brands directly. Heytea and spicy snack brand Mala Prince both started wedding-related business in 2022.
In May 2022, Heytea worked with civil affairs bureaus in multiple Chinese cities to give free tea drinks to newly registered couples. The following month, it launched a "double happiness" campaign and delivered tea to nearly 10,000 couples within one month, later adding group ordering for wedding banquets. According to official figures from Heytea, the business sold more than 200,000 cups of wedding "Xi" tea in 2024 and covered more than 100 cities nationwide.
Chayan Yuese and Lelecha later introduced wedding gift boxes and group-order discounts. In August this year, Chagee turned "hosting a happy occasion" into a formal group-ordering entry point managed at the group level, replacing earlier limited campaigns run by some stores. Official accounts in Sichuan, Chongqing, and Beijing have since posted wedding ordering notices.
Mala Prince launched its "Mala Prince Spicy Strip Wedding Plan" in 2022, recruiting couples each month through its official account for weddings scheduled in the following month. Couples selected for the program could receive spicy snack products for the wedding, along with an extra-long spicy strip designed for the traditional door-blocking part of the groom’s pickup ritual. The report said this "pickup long spicy strip" had sold more than 100,000 units in the brand’s online store, and each recruitment round drew hundreds of comments from applicants.
Couples trade wedding exposure for products
The article cited a post-2000s bride using the pseudonym Yezzi, who plans to hold her wedding at the end of the year. She said she intended to apply for brand recruitment programs and also post direct calls to brands in hopes of getting sponsorship. She found that food, wedding supplies, beauty, and personal care brands were especially active, with many posting sponsorship offers on Xiaohongshu aimed at ordinary users rather than celebrities.
E-commerce Online compared the model to a product-for-product exchange similar to "check in, leave a positive review, and get dessert." Couples place branded products neatly on wedding banquet tables and then post the setup on social platforms. In return, brands get exposure both at the event and online.
A Zhongyan Puhua report cited in the article said China’s wedding culture market will exceed RMB 2.3 trillion in 2025, with average annual growth of 9.8% over the past five years. Average wedding spending per person was said to be above RMB 130,000, rising past RMB 220,000 in first-tier cities.
The article also cited a survey released in January 2026 by the Social Survey Center of China Youth Daily. Among 1,333 respondents, 77.9% said they placed greater weight on their own and their partner’s views when planning a wedding. Another 52.1% said they would consider the opinions of parents or elders, while 23.5% said they would refer to suggestions from friends.
Some figures cannot be independently verified
The original article noted that the view and discussion figures for the Xiaohongshu tag were numbers cited by E-commerce Online, and that direct access to Xiaohongshu backend data was not available. It also said the brand that had sponsored more than 2,000 weddings was not identified in the report.
The piece added that Taiwan stopped resolving Xiaohongshu domains starting in December 2025, while Xiaohongshu remains one of China’s leading social platforms.