The whining chirrup of the electronic printer is almost incessant as it churns out the finished marriage certificates in their shiny red plastic covers, one after another.
Since early morning the Xuhui district register office in south-western Shanghai has been thronged with hundreds of couples tying the knot under China's new simplified marriage rules.
Most are dressed in polo shirts and slacks, or even jeans. It is a matter-of-fact occasion, despite the formality of swearing the marriage vows. Couples stand in front of the red five-star emblem of the People's Republic of China, flanked by generous bouquets of plastic flowers.
Some have come today because the 1 October National Day holiday has given them time to get round to it.
But many, like 29-year-old Hong Yongjiang and his new bride Dong Yuhong, have chosen the day "because before, we needed our company to make a declaration" that they were eligible to marry.
Now all that is needed is an identity card and the "hukou" or household registration document, which every Chinese needs to establish their legal residency.
"It has significant meaning because marriage is your own business," Wu Changzhen, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing told BBC News Online.
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Some people didn't have a good relationship with their managers in the company so when they wanted to get permission for marriage, their managers purposely refused
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Wu Changzhen, political science professor
It is partly a matter of lessening the sheer inconvenient running-around that the old system dictated.
"First I had to get an introduction letter from my department, then I had to go to my school's personnel unit, then to the police station to get a copy of my household registration certificate, and finally to the marriage registration office," recalls young Shanghai-based university lecturer Wang Yuehua.
"The whole process took about two or three days."
The change also reduces the sweeping powers of the "danwei", or work unit, over people's lives, Professor Wu said.
"Some people didn't have a good relationship with their managers in the company so when they wanted to get permission for marriage, their managers purposely refused. In other cases companies refused because they wanted to control the birth rate," he said.
Among the paperwork given out to the soon-to-be husbands as they wait patiently on plastic chairs in the corridor is a pink sheet outlining their rights and duties, including adhering to China's strict family planning policy.
Hands-off health
Apart from the work unit approval, the other key change is that the couples no longer need to bring with them a certificate showing that they've passed a pre-marital medical check-up.
"Every one has a right to decide whether to go (for the check-up) or not," said Emily Yao, a human resources consultant for a US company, as she and her physics teacher fiancée waited to fill in the forms before the brief ceremony.
She said she intended to have the check to reveal whether the couple might have any previously undetected medical conditions.
"Most of the young couples coming to get married are deciding to have the medical," said registry official Zhou Fengping as she watched the pocket-sized marriage certificates coming off the printer.
State media reports have carried expressions of concern from a number of Chinese doctors that the demise of the compulsory medical could potentially increase the number of babies born with hereditary diseases.
They fear the cost of the check-up could be a serious deterrent to people seeking it voluntarily, especially in the countryside where health care is often out of people's economic reach.
But the change "embodies the fact that the law fully trusts the people" to make their own decisions, said Professor Wu, who acted as a consultant to the Civil Affairs Ministry in the new law's drafting.
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