"I'm, uh, planning a wedding for next spring."

「呃，我正在籌畫明年春天的婚禮。」

"Quick quote on a venue for a family gathering."

「我想要知道關於家族聚會的場地報價。」

"Between 120 and 130 guests."

「大約有 120 至 130 位賓客。」

"For 125 people."

「約 125 人。」

"We're aiming for April 16th."

「我們將訂在四月十六號這天。」

"The 16th."

「十六號。」

"That's gonna be a $15,000 food and beverage minimum."

「食物與飲料的低消將會是 15,000 美元。」

"The food and beverage minimum is gonna be $17,000."

「食物與飲料的低消是 17,000 美元。」

"OK."

「好的。」

This 2,000 dollar difference is what's known as the "wedding mark-up" where some vendors charge a higher price for weddings than for other similar parties.

這兩千元的差別也就是所謂的「婚禮加價」，意思是相較於其他類似的派對，有些商人會針對婚禮服務收取更高的價錢。

So why are weddings so expensive?

為什麼辦婚禮會這麼昂貴呢？

The wedding website "The Knot" surveyed thousands of its members and found that the average cost of their weddings was thirty-one thousand dollars last year.

婚宴網站 The Knot 調查自家網站中的幾千位成員後發現，他們去年婚禮的平均花費大約在 31,000 美元。

That's not including honeymoon.

蜜月旅行的花費還不包含在這些錢中。

Wedding dresses average at thirteen hundred dollars and catering comes in at $68 dollars per person.

婚紗的平均價格在 1,300 美元，而每位賓客的膳食費用則為 68 美元。

And those numbers are a lot higher if you live in places like New York, Chicago, DC or San Francisco.

如果你住在紐約、芝加哥、華盛頓特區或舊金山等地區，價格還會更高。

The wedding industry is kinda weird and it's an industry that I have quite a bit of experience in.

婚宴產業有點奇特，而我個人對這一行有不少經驗。

My wife Isabel and I run a wedding videography business in Washington DC and here's my take on why weddings are so expensive.

我和我的妻子 Isabel 在華盛頓特區經營一間婚禮攝錄公司，以下是我對婚禮之所以這麼昂貴的見解。

There's this economic concept called asymmetric information.

這個概念在經濟學中被稱為「資訊不對稱」。

With most things you buy you have a pretty good gage in what you're getting for what you pay for.

在買大部分的商品時，你對於所花費的金額和換來的商品之間，會有相當好的對價認知。

You're pretty sure that an 8 dollar avocado is way too much because you've bought avocados before.

你確信一顆 8 塊錢的酪梨太貴了，因為你以前曾經買過它們。

Familiarity with a market produces balanced information between buyers and sellers and so they can settle on a fair price.

對於市場的熟悉度會平衡買賣雙方的資訊，因此他們可以共同制定一個公平的價格。

This is like Economics 101.

這就是經濟學的第一章 (供需理論)。

But most people shopping for wedding stuff have very little, if any, experience with what they're buying.

不過大部分購買婚禮用品的人，對於他們要買的東西不是很有概念。

Cake, dress, napkins, catering, venues, flowers.

蛋糕、婚紗、餐巾紙、餐點、場地或是花束。

This is stuff you just don't buy very often so you don't have a very good gage on what you should be paying.

這些東西都是你不常買的，因此你對於商品與價格之間的平衡並沒有足夠的認知。

This is made a lot harder by the fact that us wedding vendors have a hard time posting prices on our website.

讓整件事情更困難的是，婚禮業者不太會在自家網站上標註商品的價格。

You usually have to reach out and inquire to get any sort of pricing information.

你通常需要詢問並打聽，才會取得各式的價格資訊。

Imagine if you had to ask for pricing for every item in the grocery store.

想像一下在雜貨店時，你需要詢問每一項產品的價格。

Shopping would be a lot harder.

那麼，購物將會變得更加困難。

When I first was starting up my business, I read a ton of blogs about marketing to prospective clients.

當我剛開始創業時，我大量閱讀了有關潛在客戶行銷的部落格。

And overwhelming message that I kept reading is "steer away from talking about price".

而其中不斷出現的訊息就是「避免直接說出價錢」。

"We've put together a free report that shows you how to answer the "price question" with those email leads in a way that shift them away from price quickly so you can get them on the phone or to a meeting where you can book them!"

「我們做了一篇免費的報導，教你如何回覆那些詢問價錢的電子郵件，快速地將焦點從價格上轉移，如此一來，你就可以誘導他們跟你電話對談或開會，並成功讓他們決定跟你合作！ 」

And then there's Pinterest.

有一個叫 Pinterest 的網站。

Pinterest can be really useful I think using it as a starting point.

我認為 Pinterest 在剛開始籌畫婚禮的時候真的非常實用。

It's an amazing tool for wedding inspiration or if you have an experienced wedding planner by your side, but usually doesn't help with the price question.

無論是提供籌畫婚禮的靈感，或者當你身邊已經有一位資深的婚禮顧問時，Pinterest 都是很令人驚豔的工具，但它往往無法回答有關價格的問題。

And you see all these like amazing dresses and you can click on it to like get more information.

你看到這些令人驚嘆的婚紗，並點進去想獲得更多資訊。

You're gonna get a lot more pictures , but you're not gonna find any pricing information.

你只會得到更多的照片，卻不會有任何跟價格有關的資訊。

And of course, there's always the option to "repin" it if you'd like to.

然後如果你喜歡的話，總會出現「加入你的最愛」的選項。

If you are like a normal person with on a budget like you're setting yourself up to be let down.

如果你跟一般人一樣，已經設定一個預算上限，那你終究會失望。

Another thing that makes wedding so expensive is the once-in-a-lifetime mentality.

婚禮如此昂貴的另一個原因是一生一次的心態。

The classic line for brides shopping for a wedding dress is.

有句經典台詞針對購買婚紗的新娘們。

It's the dress of your life, and if there's ever a one picture your ancestors have of you, it's the one in your wedding dress."

「這是代表你一生的婚紗，如果你的祖先們要有一張你的照片，那會是你的婚紗照了。」

That's wedding dress designer Anne Barge talking on the plan of money.

婚紗設計師 Anne Barge 在規劃價格時如此說道。

I'm as guilty as anyone of this.

我和其它人一樣，對這樣的事情感到罪惡。

Here's one of our very first ads.

這是我們的首支廣告。

It's all about that once-in-a-lifetime feel.

裡面述說著這種一生一次的體驗。

It's just really hard not to splurge when you put so much weight into one day.

當你將心力特別投注在某一天時，你很難不揮霍。

It's easy to look at this and think there's no doubt that wedding vendors are ripping off their clients.

我們不難發現，這些婚禮業者肯定從客戶身上詐取不少錢財。

But there's another side to the story that I think is important to mention.

不過我想這件事情還有另一個重要的面向值得討論。

Corporate flowers for example.

以花束為例。

There's probably going to be direction but maybe there's a little bit more flexibility where as a bride has dreamt up a certain flowers and she has been pinning it.

新娘可能會有想要的花束，但當她對某種特定的花夢想已久，且已經在 Pinterest 上存了很多這樣的照片，那就不會有太多討論的彈性。

And she wants to talk to the florist multiple times about the bouquet and the ribbon treatment, and the fact that her grandmother's broach is gonna be on that bouquet.

新娘會想要多和花商討論幾次關於花束的擺設和緞帶的處理方式，以及她祖母的胸針必須出現在花束中。

It's a lot of time and energy spent on those flowers and that's gonna be reflected in the cost.

在花束問題上花費的許多時間和精神，會因此反映在價錢上。

The upshot of this is that the emotional weight of weddings usually means more work for vendors, and thus higher prices.

會有這樣的結果是因為對婚禮業者來說，這些婚禮中的情感因素象徵著更多工作，也因此有更高的價錢。

And the most demanding clients are the ones that set the prices for everyone.

而要求最多的客戶，通常也間接幫大家設下了價格的基準。

So the best thing you can do to avoid being swindled is to demand the price range before hearing a sales pitch.

所以為了防止被騙，你最需要做的事情就是在聽到商品的宣傳前，就先預設一個價格區間。

We vendors might hate it but it's the fair thing to do.

我們這些商人多少會討厭這樣的做法，不過這樣做仍是比較妥當的。