This Train is Bound for Guinness Glory

The current world record holder for the longest wedding gown is held by a Romanian woman and has been since April 1, 2009. Yeah, April Fool’s Day. But it looks like there may be a new record now.

Zhao Peng of the eastern Jilin province of China had a custom gown made for his bride, Lin Rong, that will blow the Romanian record out of the water. The current record holder is a mere 1,579 meters or 5,180 feet. Lin Rong’s gown measures a whopping 2,162 meters or 7,083 feet.

Mr. Zhao enlisted family and friends, including his aunt who is a dressmaker, to help realize his dream. He said he did it because he didn’t want a ‘cliche wedding parade or banquet.’ No cliches here! At the wedding, the 200 guests took three hours to unroll the gown and pin 9,999 silk roses to it.

After the wedding, Zhao cut the gown down to 1,984.1022 meters to represent his bride’s date of birth, and sewed on 608 crystals, one for every day the couple dated.

Guinness has not yet ruled on the record-worthiness of the dress, but Zhao says he doesn’t really care how that turns out. The point was to make a romantic gesture. The bride is reported to have both laughed and cried, which sounds like a hit to me.

The groom’s mother, though, had a different take:

“It is a waste of money in my opinion,” she told Xinhua.

“Though I understand that he wants to show his love on the big day.”