VOA慢速英语2021--随着疫情的缓解，婚庆业蓬勃发展

Planning a wedding is never easy.

Now, men and women racing¹ to marry after vaccination² in the U.S. face a shortage³ of flowers, special clothing and food, and venues⁵ to hold their weddings.

As the pandemic eases and restrictions⁶ are lifted, wedding planners and service providers say they have started pushing their appointments into late 2022 and early 2023.

Anna Noriega owns a wedding planning business in Miami, Florida. She said that both vaccinations⁸ and easy COVID-19 testing have permitted weddings to be held with a lot of guests. That has led to more demand for her business than ever.

"We've run out of trucks for some dates this year and that hasn't happened before," said Ben Goldberg. He is the co-founder and president of the New York Food Truck Association.

He provides food for weddings. People want "to have the weddings they had to put off during COVID," he added.

Adding to the rush, some got married quietly, without a celebration, during the pandemic. Now, they want to have a large, costly⁹ event.

Namisha Balagopal of Emeryville, California became engaged to Suhaas Prasad in 2019. They had planned a traditional South Asian wedding for 320 guests with events over five days. That could not happen under pandemic restrictions so they married quietly with just a few family members.

The 27-year-old bride is planning a big wedding celebration for August 15 in Park City, Utah. "It's just a really big part of our culture," she said of the wedding. "In the end, it was really important to our parents."

There is also increased demand for special wedding clothing for the bride, often called a bridal dress.

David's Bridal has 282 stores in the U.S. and more in the UK, Canada and Mexico. The company has 300,000 dresses in its stores because of all the wedding cancellations or delays from last year.

Maggie Lord is a vice⁷ president at David's. "It's going to be an unprecedented¹⁰ wedding season this year," she said.

Wedding ceremonies in the U.S. are usually held on weekends. But Lord said people are "having Thursday night ceremonies or Friday afternoon ceremonies just because of the amount of people getting married this year."

"Ninety percent of brides this year are looking to have their weddings at outdoor venues," Lord said because there are fewer restrictions.

Justin Warshaw runs the large international bridal dress company Justin Alexandre Group. He has seen wedding dress requests increase by 593 percent from the same period last spring. "People want to celebrate with family and friends, and get on with their lives," he said.

Competition for places to hold a wedding and other services have caused prices to rise in some areas.

Anna Price Olson works for Bride magazine. She said businesses that provide food and flowers for weddings are often small ones. They have to hire more people to meet demand and pay more for goods like flowers. "In order to do so, in many cases, they're having to charge more," Olson said.

Tirusha Dave is the owner Bravura¹¹ Brides, the company used by Balagopal to plan her celebration. Dave said she managed three weddings in 2020. So far, she already has 11 weddings planned for this year with 250 to 300 guests invited to each one.

"I think everybody's ready for things to bounce back, but just in a safe way," she said.

Words in This Story

wedding - n. a ceremony at which two people are married to each other

venue⁴ - n. the place where an event takes place

bride - n. a woman who has just married or is about to be married

unprecedented - adj. never before done

bounce (back) - v. to return quickly to a normal condition after a difficult situation or event

1 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

2 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

3 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

4 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

5 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

6 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 vaccinations   

n.种痘，接种( vaccination的名词复数 )；牛痘疤

参考例句：

• Vaccinations ensure one against diseases. 接种疫苗可以预防疾病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I read some publicity about vaccinations while waiting my turn at the doctor's. 在医生那儿候诊时，我读了一些关于接种疫苗的宣传。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

10 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

11 bravura   

n.华美的乐曲；勇敢大胆的表现；adj.壮勇华丽的

参考例句：

• The music ends with a display of bravura.音乐以一段壮丽的乐章结束。
• This picture has a bravura of execution.这幅画作风大胆。