GEORGE TOWN - The New Year marked a new start for 60 couples who took their marriage vows at mass marriage ceremonies here and in Kuantan.

Car salesman Kenny See and Ivian Loo were among 51 couples in a mass marriage registration at the Che Hoon Khor Moral Uplifting Society building in Jalan Macalister here.

See, 32, had wooed Loo, 25, for 100 days before the clerk from Kuala Lumpur accepted his proposal.

The couple pledged to "start a new life in a new year".

"Although we had known each other for only about three months, we just clicked," he said, adding they first met on Sept 12, which coincided with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.

Administrative clerk Lee Pei Wah, 24, said her husband would have no excuse to forget their wedding date and her birthday, as both auspicious days fall on Jan 1.

"I chose the date because of its significance," said Lee, who married technician Loo Meng Soon, 25.

For Chong Beng Kwong, 27, and clerk Pheh Saw Peng, 26, New Year's Day also marked the 10th anniversary of their first meeting in 2002.

"Time really flies. I can still remember the time when we were both working part-time at a traditional biscuit shop. It was love at first sight," said Chong, a technician.

Sales and service executive Chow Eng Khin, 30, and accountant Goh Min Shiang, 27, had been friends for nine years but only became an item last year.

"I think we were just fated to be together. I made the first move during our first meeting nine years ago but Goh rejected it since she was still in school," quipped Chow.

In Kuantan, nine couples took part in a group marriage registration at the Pahang Buddhist Association temple yesterday.

Chua Khiong Leong and Wong Win Nie, decided to end their eight-year long-distance love affair by taking their marriage vows on the first day of 2012.

Chua, 28, first met the woman of his life while they were studying here together. He is an engineer in Ipoh while she teaches in Seremban.

"Initially, we wanted to register here in March but our chosen dates had been fully booked.

"We ended up getting married on the first day of the New Year," said a cheerful Chua.

Wong, 27, said she would seek a transfer to be with her husband.

For Lim See Hui and Chin Seah Ling, it had been a long-cherished dream to wed on New Year's Day.

"We achieved this dream on the first day of 2012," said an elated Lim, 28, an auditor.