美国也开始追求节俭 看婚礼省钱的五大诀窍

A spectacular wedding cake with fondant flowers dusted in gold, scalloped edges -- or whatever your Pinterest board inspired you to do -- can get pretty costly. The average wedding cake costs nearly $500, and while it's only a sliver of the total wedding cost, one in five couples spend more than that, even upwards of $1,000 on dessert, according to TheWeddingReport.com. So don't let the price of a wedding cake take the...well, you know.
翻糖花点缀、扇形金色镶边的婚礼大蛋糕（上面还可以加上任何你灵感迸发想出其他好玩意），会花掉你的一大笔钱。据TheWeddingReport.com称，婚礼蛋糕的平均价格接近500美元，虽然这只是婚礼总开销的九牛一毛，但每五对夫妻中就会有一对夫妻在甜点上的花销要远远超过这个价格，甚至达到了1,000美元。所以，不要让婚礼蛋糕的花费太那个什么了…你懂的。

The cost of a cake is calculated per slice, and can range from a few dollars to $15 a slice, reports theKnot.com. And don't forget about the delivery fee and cutting fee. While it's best to have the baker deliver the cake themselves because they're the experts, the cutting fee goes to the vendor when you don't use an in-house baker. The cutting fee ranges from $2 to $5 per slice for cutting, serving, and cleaning up afterward. To avoid those pesky fees and save on the overall expense, many couples have turned to cupcakes. (But some couples also prefer cupcakes because it's the trendy thing to do.) After all, they're just mini cakes in disguise. You can mix-and-match different flavors to suit your guests' varying taste buds. Plus, you'll save on the baker's end, as assembly and design time are minimal for cupcakes.
theKnot.com称，蛋糕的价格是按块来计算的，每块从几美元到15美元不等。不过，别忘了还有运输费和切分费用。既然烘焙店是专业做这个的，最好还是让烘焙店自己送蛋糕，不过，如果你没有用内部的烘焙坊，还得支付给卖家切分费。蛋糕切分费从每块2美元至5美元不等，包括切分、餐服和之后的清理。为了省掉这块麻烦的费用，降低总体的婚礼开销，许多夫妻转而使用纸托蛋糕。（不过还有一些夫妻是为了赶时髦而使用杯托蛋糕）。毕竟，它们不过是装扮了的迷你蛋糕。你可以根据宾客们的不同口味提供各种风味的蛋糕，另外，这还能让你省了烘焙方面的成本，因为纸托蛋糕装配和设计的时间是最短的。

Live stream the ceremony
消减仪式规模

Today, the average wedding has 131 guests, and the price per head is $192. So many couples have started to keep the nuptial costs down by limiting the guest list. In fact, since peaking at an average of 184 guests in 2006, the figure has been on a steady decline, dropping 29% over the last seven years. To accommodate those who were axed, or who simply can't make the trip, couples have started broadcasting their weddings like the royals themselves. Last year, nearly 20,000 weddings were broadcast over Ustream.tv, the largest live-video streaming platform. Ustream.tv is well-known for streaming everything from zoo-animal births to space walks, but in the past year alone it's seen a 250% rise in wedding streams, says spokeswoman Joellen Ferrer. 'It's been an interesting phenomenon,' Ferrer says. 'More people are looking at this technology to bridge the gap and allow family to attend an event when they physically can't be there.'
如今一场婚礼邀请的宾客数量平均为131名、新人们在每位宾客身上的花费是192美元。因此，许多夫妻开始通过限制宾客数量来降低婚礼开销。事实上，自从2006年每场婚礼平均的宾客数达到了184位的最高值之后，这个数字一直在稳步下降，在过去七年累计下跌了29%。为了照顾那些被从名单上砍掉的宾客、和那些无法到场的亲朋好友，新人们开始像皇家婚礼一样直播自己的婚礼过程。去年，有近20,000场婚礼登上了最大的视频直播流媒体平台Ustream.tv。Ustream.tv本来是以传播从动物园动物产子到太空漫步等各类视频而出名，但网站发言人乔伦·费勒说(Joellen Ferrer)说，光去年一年，其婚礼视频的数量就增长了250%。费勒说，这是一个有趣的现象，有越来越多的人用流媒体来拉近彼此的距离，让不能亲身到场的亲朋好友也能参与其中。

Ustream.tv charges $99 a month for its ad-free-pro-silver plan, which enables couples to live stream their wedding ceremony via a mobile device, webcam, or other compatible device for friends and family not in attendance -- essentially saving the couple $9,600 or more for 50 virtual guests. They can then download the saved video file to a hard drive as a keepsake, or store it on the Ustream cloud for $15 a month if they cancel the pro-silver subscription plan.
Ustream.tv的无广告专业银套餐计划每月收费99美元。购买这个套餐后，新人们可以通过手持设备、网络摄像头或者其他兼容设备为不能到场的亲朋好友直播婚典盛况，这无形中为新人们省去了50位虚拟客人9,600美元以上的费用。他们之后可以把存好的视频下载到硬盘上留作纪念，也可以直接存在Ustream的云端，但如果他们停止使用专业银套餐计划，每月要支付15美元的存储费。

Opt for something borrowed
考虑购买“二手婚礼”

If tacking small sections of the budget isn't enough, some couples are forgoing wedding planning altogether -- only not in the way you think. They aren't eloping to save money, but are purchasing the actual wedding (catering, venue, and all) from other couples who cancel their weddings and don't want to foot the bill. With 270,000 (13%) of couples cancelling their weddings each year -- or an estimated $6.8 billion dollars down the proverbial drain -- it's potentially a lucrative enterprise as wedding insurance doesn't cover everything, some industry insiders say.
一些夫妻嫌从小处省钱还不够，还会考虑放弃整个婚礼筹备——只是方式并非和你想的一样。他们不是为了省钱而私奔，而是要从那些取消婚礼、而又不想付账的夫妻那里把婚礼整个买下来（包括酒席、场地等等）。每年有270,000对（占13%）夫妻取消婚礼，估计要白白浪费掉68亿美元，一些婚庆业内人士说，这是一项潜在的赚钱大买卖，因为婚礼保险并不覆盖所有的东西。

Subsequently, bridal brokerage websites have emerged to help put some of that money back into the hands of the jilted ex-couples. CanceledWeddings.com, a fledging wedding brokerage site, boasts that its registrants have a cumulative budget of $50 million that needs to be spent in the next six months, according to its CEO, Peter K. Ulrich. Recently, the website brokered a deal for a fully-paid wedding in Maryland discounted by 70% (where the average wedding costs $32,600, according to TheWeddingReport.com). 'The more expensive it is, the better deals you can get,' Ulrich says. 'The buyers just expect a good deal, and that's what we're trying to do; we saw a way to solve a problem so no one loses.'
帮助这些取消婚礼的前夫妻们挽回部分经济损失的婚礼中介网站应运而生。CanceledWeddings.com就是一家新兴的婚礼中介网站，据网站首席执行长彼得·k·乌尔里希(Peter K. Ulrich)说，在其网站上登记的用户有累计5,000万美元的婚礼预算要在未来六个月消化掉。最近，这个网站促成了一单交易，把马里兰州一场全额支付的婚礼以七折的价格转卖给了另外一对夫妻。（据WeddingReport.com称，当地婚礼的平均费用是32,600美元。）乌尔里希说，婚礼费用越高，你能拿到的折扣就越大。买家们就想买到便宜的婚礼，这也是我们努力的方向，我们找到了一种皆大欢喜的方式解决大家的问题。

These websites broker deals by acting as the point-of-contact entity between the wedding cancelers and prospective buyers while maintaining each couple's privacy. For example, when a couple cancels their wedding, they enlist a broker's help to list their 'pre-packaged wedding' on the broker's canceled weddings website. Then, another couple can reserve the package by taking over the first couple's contracts with the vendors and by paying any remaining fees. Thereby, they've accepted financial responsibility for a wedding they never planned, but will still participate in at half the cost.
这些网站充当了婚礼取消方和婚礼潜在买家之间联络的桥梁，同时还要保守每对夫妻的隐私。比如，当一对夫妻要取消婚礼时，他们会请来中介帮助他们把“婚礼全套装”在中介的婚礼取消网站上挂牌销售。之后，另一对夫妻可以从婚礼服务提供方那里把第一对夫妻的合同转签过来，并支付剩余未支付的费用，从而定下这个“婚礼全套装”。这样一来，他们就要承担一场不是他们自己策划的婚礼的所有费用，不过金额可能只有原价的一半。