美国婚礼花费排行 纽约六万美元居首

New York, where the average cost of a wedding is $65,824, is the most expensive city in the United States to get married but many couples will spend about $27,000 to tie the knot and that doesn't include the cost of the honeymoon.

Most things in Manhattan and the New York metropolitan area are expensive and weddings are no exception, according to the wedding websites TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com, which polled nearly 18,000 US brides who were married in 2011 about the cost of their big day.

Chicago came in second with wedding costs of $53,069, The price tags ranged from a high in Manhattan, which topped the poll of 20 cities to Detroit, where couples spend $27,017 on their nuptials.

The state of West Virginia, where nuptials cost an average of $14,203, was the least expensive wedding location.

"For the first time since 2008, wedding budgets are on the rise," said Carley Roney, cofounder of The Knot. "In 2011, one in five US couples spent more than $30,000, and 11 percent spent more than $40,000 on their weddings," she said.

Anja Winikka, the site editor of TheKnot.com, said the economy could be playing a part in the rising price tags of weddings.

"It probably has to do with attitudes toward economic recovery," she said.

The overall cost of a wedding includes the venue, wedding planner, band and DJ, photographer, florist, videographer, dress, cake, ceremony site and musicians, invitations, limousine, favors, rehearsal dinner and engagement ring.

The venue usually accounts for 50 percent of the budget and the average cost per guest is $196, according to Winikka, who added that 75 percent of couple contribute to the cost of their wedding.

Brides, whose average age was 29, paid about $1,100 for their wedding dress, invited about 140 guests, had four to five bridesmaids and about a 14-month engagement, according to the survey.

The average fee for the wedding planner was $1,753. Future brides are also planning further ahead, some more than 12 months in advance of the wedding. A hopeful 16 percent of potential brides started planning their big day before their prospective husband put a ring on their finger.

(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

双语资讯

(Agencies)

最新调查显示，2011年美国平均一场婚礼的开销约为2.7万美元，其中不包括蜜月。纽约是美国婚礼费用最高的城市，平均为65824美元。

美国婚庆网站“结缘”和“婚礼频道”就婚礼花费调查了近1.8万名2011年结婚的美国新娘。曼哈顿和纽约大都会区的大部分消费都非常昂贵，婚礼也不例外。

排在第二位的是芝加哥，平均婚礼花费为53069美元。曼哈顿地区结婚费用在受调查的20个城市中最高，而底特律的婚礼花费仅为27017美元。

西维吉尼亚州是全美最省钱的婚礼举办地，平均为14203美元。

“结缘”网站创始人之一卡莉•罗尼说：“这是自2008年以来婚礼预算首次上涨。2011年，五分之一的美国新婚夫妇为婚礼支出超过3万美元，11%超过4万美元。”

“结缘”网站编辑阿尼娅•维尼卡说，经济状况是导致2011年婚礼支出增加的因素之一。

她说：“这或许与人们看待经济复苏的态度有关。”

婚礼花销包括婚宴场地、婚庆策划、乐队及主持人、摄像师、鲜花、录像师、礼服、婚礼蛋糕、仪式地点、乐师、喜帖、婚车、礼品、排练晚宴和订婚戒指等等。

温尼卡表示，婚宴场地费用一般占婚礼总费用的一半，宴请来宾平均每人的成本为196美元，75%的夫妇自己承担婚礼的部分费用。

该调查发现，美国新娘的平均年龄为29岁，婚纱的平均费用1100美元，一般邀请140位来宾，有四、五名伴娘，平均订婚时间为14个月。

婚礼策划费用平均为1753美元。准新娘提前很早就开始准备婚礼，一些人的准备时间超过一年。还有大约16%的准新娘甚至在男友求婚之前就开始计划了。

Vocabulary:

tie the knot: 结婚

limousine: 豪华轿车