The next day, the fake groom and the fake parent-in-law who appeared in Huong’s fake wedding went to the hospital to visit her parents. Huong’s mother was very happy to see her son-in-law and his parent.

That is just one of hundreds of fake weddings taking place in Hanoi and other provinces in the country in order to please the families, the relatives, the parents of brides or grooms, or to avoid an arranged wedding or to simply avoid the neighbor's bad mouth because the bride is pregnant already while the real “groom” runs away.

Just returning from a wedding in Yen Bai, Mr. Tran Tuan Viet, director of the Tuan Viet Company, a human resources company, said: "The bride is very cute and very talented. Her name is Loan. She was in a state of panic when she met me. She said that she and her colleague fell in love. But when she was three month pregnant, the man abandoned Loan."

Loan did not want to leave her fatherless child but she also did not want her family and neighbors whispered about her child, she went to Tuan Viet Company to use the company’s service. Accordingly, Tuan Viet organized a fake wedding for Loan, with a fake groom.

According to the company’s script, Loan’s husband is name Hung, from Nghe An province. Hung’s parents both died young and the man grew up with his aunt. He was a bachelor, had a good job and bought an apartment in Hanoi. He did not have many relatives in Nghe An so the couple only held a small party in Hanoi and invited some friends. After one or two years, the couple will divorce.

The total amount for this fake wedding is about VND100 million ($5,000), with the number of participants of nearly 40 people of all age, with all procedures for a traditional wedding.

Pleasure

Tuan Viet Company had more than 300 clients in the last two years, up to 90% of them are women who were pregnant and their boyfriends abandoned them or they were married. Mr. Tuan Viet said: "They are lovely, kind, cute and smart women, but also very vulnerable. Some people told me their sad stories for a half day but after the meeting, they still texted me: If you do not help me, I will die because I cannot live with my families and relatives anymore. What the clients required is to hold a wedding at a restaurant in Hanoi with the full family of the groom and the groom’s family also visits the bride's home in the countryside to make every procedure of a normal wedding.”

"I think the fake wedding really helps a lot of girls get out of crisis, because they are decent people who unluckily love bad men. They do not want to miss their babies so they have to hire someone to set up a fake wedding to please their parents. We also have script for the end of their marriage in the future," he said.

After two years providing this special service, many babies were born. "They (clients) still keep in touch with me. Sometimes they called me to tell about their current life and to say thanks. And Tuan Viet Company continues to help them by providing post-wedding services, for example, taking the groom to visit the bride’s home, visit the bride’s parents when they go to Hanoi...."

And angry

Recently, Tuan Viet met an elderly man and a pretty young girl. "This girl is a lesbian but her parents in the country do not know so they forced her to get married. Now she wanted to have a wedding to please her parents," the old man said. But then it turned out that the girl was pregnant and the father of the baby is the old man.

The girl was born in Hai Duong. She went to Hanoi to study. She lived with her aunt whose husband worked far from home. Sometimes the man returned home and he had relationship with her niece. The girl was pregnant and a fake wedding with a foreign man was held. After the wedding, the groom returned to Singapore to work and the girl stayed in Vietnam to continue her studies.

"That fact was not revealed until the wedding was held and it really made us very shocked," Tuan Viet shared.

In addition to the groom renting service, Tuan Viet also provides the bride renting service but until now only three clients used this service and all of them are gays. Tuan Viet Company also provides other services like fake boyfriends or girlfriends, secretaries, etc.