Wedding photo crushing service is 'as expensive as hot cakes', the majority of customers are women

A factory in Langfang, Hebei province, China is adding new meaning to the term “broken hearts.” Every morning, the floor here is lined with photos of smiling couples on their wedding day or some other romantic occasion. But then, one by one, the photos are spray-painted black and fed into an industrial shredder, crushed into tiny pieces and then used to generate electricity.

Today, the photos have been sorted into 25 piles, each with a scheduled date for destruction. In each of these piles there may be photo albums as thick as a dictionary, a red iron box filled with torn up photos, a large banner with the names of the bride and groom engraved along with a drawing of a heart. and the words “Welcome to our wedding.”

Company owner Liu Wei started his love memorabilia crushing service last spring after a friend agreed to let him use his factory and machinery, which had previously been used used to destroy documents, auto parts and expired food for businesses.

Liu Wei said requests to shred wedding photos account for 80% of his business.

Most of the photos are large in size, usually hung on the wall, and have metal or wooden frames. Some are as tall as real people. Some of the photos look like they were taken a long time ago but most are new, showing couples holding hands on spiral staircases in European-style castles, sitting on chairs embroidered with phoenix and dragon motifs or standing under trees. coconut trees on tropical beaches.

There are also photo albums recording the stages and milestones of a happy marriage: Wedding day, pregnancy, childbirth, toddlers... However, these once cherished memories are now Just a pile of trash waiting to be crushed.

The process of shredding these memorabilia using a giant shredder naturally acts as a form of comfort for clients struggling with strong post-breakup emotions. Many photos sent to the factory show clear signs of the owner's previous attempts to destroy them. In some photos, the man's face has been blackened, scratched multiple times or scribbled with turtle drawings - a form of insult.

Wedding photos made of acrylic material are extremely popular with Chinese couples because of their durability. This type of wedding photo is non-flammable, cannot be cut with a knife and does not break even if someone steps on it. Many are also framed with large panels of glass, which cannot be put in a shredder because it can create dangerous glass shards.

Liu's business partner, Yang, once had a piece of glass fly into his forehead while crushing a customer's photo, leaving a deep gash. Since then, the factory has processed glass-framed photos by placing them in cardboard boxes and smashing them with a sledgehammer.

“With photos this big, you can't take them out and put them in the neighborhood trash,” Liu said. Many men may not care, but women certainly will. Especially in small towns, people will gossip.”

In rural areas, people have the habit of picking up unused objects to reuse for home repairs. Made from such sturdy materials, your wedding photos can easily be turned into screens and fences of your neighbor's house. If you're not careful, you and your ex-spouse could end up hanging in someone else's pig pen.

Give up

Slightly chubby, wearing glasses, over 40 years old, Liu used to work in the pharmaceutical industry. He started advertising his memorabilia shredding service on social media last March. In the first month, he received orders. At first, he had less than 3 orders/month, but after 10 months, demand skyrocketed. To date, more than 6 people have asked about his services and he has destroyed more than 6.000 batches of wedding photos. Liu charges by weight, on average each customer spends more than 700 Yuan (100 thousand VND).

He estimates that about 70% of the people who contact him are women, although this is sometimes difficult to determine because some WeChat users hide their gender or use anonymous accounts. The vast majority of people who ask about his services don't share much. They just ask for the price, then send the goods via courier.

Occasionally, customers also share their stories, usually no more than 3 sentences. Liu took out her phone as an example: "Divorced, still suffering, currently in the hospital." Occasionally clients also mention other situations, such as infidelity or conflict with a spouse. But Liu never asked further or made any judgments. His answers are often emojis accompanied by encouraging sentences like: "I believe everything will get better" or "Marriage is for happiness, but divorce is also for happiness."

Liu found that people who were truly determined to destroy their memorabilia didn't say much, while those who shared more information were often hesitant and looking for more words of encouragement.

There have been 3 cases where Liu had to send back wedding photos intact because she had not received confirmation before canceling. One customer reconciled with his partner, another changed his mind for unknown reasons, and the third case was simply a mistake – the customer accidentally sent the wrong wedding photo of their parents.

A few days earlier, a man in his 40s sent Liu a photo of his deceased wife, along with photos of their married life. A few days later, he called to ask if he could send more of his wife's clothes and handbags. Looking at those souvenirs, the man felt sad but did not want to sell them. As the two chatted on the phone, Liu asked the man to list each item one by one. Halfway through speaking, the man burst into tears.

Recently, a young man asked to shred the belongings his ex-girlfriend left behind after dumping him, including a towel and a flashlight. Liu also received some items from customers' deceased pets.

When he first started this job, he was always moved every time he faced a floor covered with wedding photos. "I don't think single people will want to get married after seeing this scene" - he said and pointed to the ground. However, over time, Liu and his colleagues became almost indifferent to it all. They crushed too many happy mementos.

However, receiving photos of children still makes them feel uncomfortable. Liu said orders related to children's photos have been increasing recently, although he couldn't explain why.

There are photo albums of children of different ages and albums with family photos. Liu said he had emotional difficulties every time he needed to spray paint on a child's face and put the photo in the shredder. "I also have children" - he said.

Overall, Liu feels her business helps people forget the past. In videos posted on social network Douyin, he welcomes people to express their emotions through his service. He even filmed the crushing process and shared the video with customers to add to the "saying goodbye" feeling.

In fact, there was a female client who wanted her items crushed on the day her divorce was finalized. She wanted to mark the occasion by watching a video of her wedding photos being crushed into pieces.

Personalize service

Recently, Liu has been offering more personalization services beyond simply tossing memorabilia into the crusher. Customers can write or record their own farewell message to read aloud or play as their memorabilia goes into the shredder.

He also offers private sessions, where customers can rent a venue for two hours and hang all their photos in the factory to say goodbye, including a host and a few workers. witness. But so far, none of Liu's 2 customers have chosen one of these two services.

However, 5 customers asked to participate in the memorabilia crushing process. Some simply want to save on shipping fees by hand-delivering them, while others want to personally toss them into the crusher.

A woman drove a Mercedes toward Liu to destroy a large box containing souvenirs. Liu recorded a video for her and included the lyrics to the song “Good Days.”

Most customers cut ties with Liu as soon as the job was completed. One person sent him a message on WeChat saying: “I may have to block you because your username has the word 'wedding photo' and I don't want my (current) husband to misunderstand.” Another wrote: "I hope this is the first and last time we work together."

Ultimately, the waste paper left over from the photos will be used to generate electricity. When the accumulated pile of waste paper reaches a certain weight, the factory transfers it to a nearby biofuel power plant, where it is thrown together with household waste in a large pit that can hold up to 100.000 ton. Liu visited the factory last summer, but the sight of his trash mixed in a pit filled with rotting food made him feel uncomfortable so he left.

At the end of the day, Liu finished the orders but left one item untouched, the white wedding dress. It lay crumpled on the ground looking like a floating white cloud. A woman sent it here after her divorce was finalized that morning. Because the dress could get caught in the shredder, Liu plans to send it directly to a biofuel power plant. When the workers left, he picked up the dress and hung it up.

The dress that once symbolized the intense energy between two lovers will soon create a completely different kind of energy.