HONG KONG  As classical Muzak blasted from a loudspeaker, Kelvin Kwong got down on one knee and declared his love for his fiancée, Ashley Tse, in front of a rowdy media scrum. Their engagement party on Valentine’s Day was the inaugural event of a new and aggressively promoted nuptial service at McDonald’s restaurants in Hong Kong, the first in the world to offer McWeddings.

About a week later, the first real wedding ceremony in a McDonald’s was held here involving a different couple, though the bride and groom, perhaps understandably, decided not to invite the press.

In 2006, Hong Kong changed a law to allow for weddings held outside of places of worship or City Hall. Entrepreneurs quickly offered ceremonies on boats, in shopping malls and even under water in the aquarium of the Ocean Park theme park. McDonald’s, which has been in Hong Kong since 1975, is the first fast-food chain to get in on the lucrative trade.

The local wedding industry is worth about 10.7 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $1.37 billion, a year, according to ESD Life, an online media outlet. An ESD survey of 1,781 people found that the average couple spent about $29,200, mostly to give face to families with lavish banquets, multiple outfit changes and even dowries, which are still paid in this otherwise modern city.