Dickie Cheung and Zhang Qian take pre-wedding photos at the Club Punta Fuego in Batangas, the Philippines on Saturday, January 10, 2009. [sina.com]

Finally after nine years of courtship and one year of registered marriage, Hong Kong TV celebrity Dickie Cheung and actress Zhang Qian will have a formal wedding ceremony to mark the occasion in the Philippines on January 12.

The local government has extended a warm welcome to the two, in particular to Zhang Qian, who was tourism ambassador to the Philippines last year. With assistance from the authorities, the ceremony will be held in the 400-year-old San Agustin Church in Manila, and is set to end off with a large firework display, Cheung told the Ming Pao Weekly.

China's Popular TV hosts Li Jing and Dai Jun will emcee the ceremony.

Dickie Cheung and Zhang Qian take pre-wedding photos at the Club Punta Fuego in Batangas, the Philippines on Saturday, January 10, 2009. [sina.com]

The couple has invited nearly 200 guests to this all-expenses-paid event, Cheung says.

Decked out in local traditional wedding dress, the two lovebirds had a pre-wedding photo shoot on Saturday at the exclusive Club Punta Fuego in Batangas, a port city near Manila. Their outfits were provided by the Philippine Tourism Authority and were designed by a local designer using pineapple fibers, reported the sina.com.

Dickie Cheung and Zhang Qian started dating in 1999 as co-stars on the TV serial "The Legend of Chen Mengji". Zhang Qian was reported to be pregnant in mid-2007 but had a miscarriage in her eighth month of pregnancy in early 2008.