The biggest wedding boom in history is helping power China's economic growth and may push its housing market into dangerously overinflated territory. Children of China's baby boomers are coming of age in the tens of millions, and as coddled only-children who did not inherit their parents' thrift, are throwing lavish ceremonies, fueling a wedding industry bigger than the GDP of many smaller nations.

"The global financial crisis hit a lot of industries: exporters, banks, insurance. But not only was the wedding industry not affected, it has had even stronger growth over the past year," the head of an industry committee tells Reuters. All those newlyweds buying homes has helped push property prices up more than 80% over the last year and analysts warn that a crash is likely when the current demographic bulge of people in their thirties passes.