The Bride, the Groom and the Greek Sunset: A Perfect Wedding Picture
蓝白圣托里尼，中国人的婚纱照圣地

SANTORINI, Greece — The bride wore a sparkling tiara and a flowing red wedding gown, her fifth matrimonial ensemble of the day. The groom wore a silver tuxedo and the fatigued look of a guy who had spent the last dozen hours posing for pictures.

希腊圣托里尼——新娘头戴闪亮的冕状头饰，身着飘逸的红色婚纱，这是她当天的第五套结婚礼服。新郎身穿银色燕尾服，看上去疲惫不堪，就是一个过去十几个小时一直在摆姿势拍照的人应有的样子。

The photographer gave instructions. Re-enact the proposal on bended knee. Twirl in the dress. Kiss the bride’s hand.

摄影师给出指示。重现屈膝求婚的场面。纱裙旋转。亲吻新娘的手。

But it was nearly sunset, and the couple still hadn’t captured that perfect Santorini picture to display at their traditional wedding in China next month.

但已接近日落时分，这对情侣还没拍到那张完美的圣托里尼岛照，他们需要下个月在中国的传统婚礼上展示它。

So their photographer, who is based in Shanghai, rushed the pair across the island’s whitewashed roofs and narrow cliffside footpaths, coaching them in Chinese at various scenic outlooks.

于是，常驻上海的摄影师带着这对新人，匆匆穿过岛上有着洁白屋顶的房子和窄窄的崖边步道，在各个优美的观景点用中文指导他们。

Above a luxury hotel renowned in China as the setting for a popular romantic comedy, he told the weary groom to lift his betrothed in an over-the-threshold pose. The third try was the charm.

在因作为一部热门浪漫喜剧拍摄地而闻名中国的一家豪华酒店上方，他让疲惫的新郎以一个过难的姿势举起他的未婚妻。第三次肯定成。

For a grand finale, the couple stared into one another’s eyes on a rooftop, and the photographer framed their silhouettes around the blood-orange sun, sinking behind them into the shimmering Aegean Sea. It was the stuff pre-wedding-picture dreams were made of.

作为最后的盛大结局，这对情侣在屋顶上深情对视，摄影师将他们的身影框定在血橙色的夕阳周围，夕阳在身后沉入波光粼粼的爱琴海。这是婚纱照梦想中的样子。

“Santorini is famous in China,” said the 29-year-old groom, Yao Kai, after the final click of the camera.

“圣托里尼在中国很有名，”29岁的新郎姚凯（音）在拍完最后一张照之后说。

Unlike his parents, who he said had sat stoically for their wedding photos in China, the groom had the good fortune to have seen the world — and wanted his friends, family and wedding guests to see him seeing it.

和父母不同，他说当年在中国拍结婚照，父母都是一本正经地坐着，新郎有幸看到了这个世界——他也希望朋友、家人和婚礼宾客能看到他看到的这个世界。

“This is a great moment for our country’s economy,” he added. “We are getting stronger.”

“这是我们国家经济的重大时刻，”他又说。“我们在日益强大。”

Pre-wedding pictures have become a multi-billion-dollar business in the Instagram age — particularly for Asian couples.

在这个Instagram时代，婚纱照已经成为一项价值数十亿美元的生意，尤其是对亚洲情侣而言。

Many Chinese brides and grooms who plan for traditional ceremonies back home go first for professional photographs under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, at Big Ben in London, and in the English countryside. (“A Downton Abbey effect on Chinese pre-wedding photo shoots,” the South China Morning Post reported.) New Zealand and Antarctica are the latest pre-wedding destination hot spots.

许多计划在国内举行传统婚礼的中国新娘和新郎，会先去巴黎埃菲尔铁塔、伦敦大本钟和英国乡村拍摄专业照片。（《南华早报》曾撰文报道“《唐顿庄园》[Downton Abbey]对中国婚纱照拍摄的影响”。）新西兰和南极洲是最新的热门婚纱照拍摄地。

But the deep blues and white-out whites of Santorini exercise a particular hold on the romantic imagination of many an Asian nearlywed.

但圣托里尼岛的深蓝色调和大片的洁白对许多亚洲新人的浪漫想象有着特别的吸引力。

“A lot of people come,” said Xu Kaiyue, the photographer’s assistant. “Too many people.”

“很多人来这里，”摄影师助理徐凯越（音）说。“人太多了。”

Santorini is fatally picturesque. Armadas of cruise ships and low-cost air carriers carry selfie and Instagram addicts to its clogged towns. Airbnbs have replaced residents. The island’s donkeys buckle under the burden of portly visitors. (“Fat tourists leave Greek island donkeys CRIPPLED,” read a headline in Britain’s Express newspaper.)

圣托里尼风景优美到无可救药。一艘艘游船和一架架廉价航空班机载着自拍和Instagram爱好者前来这里拥堵的小镇。Airbnb的房客已经取代居民。岛上的驴子被肥实的游客压得腿直打弯。(英国《快报》[Express]的一则标题写道，胖游客导致希腊岛上的驴子残废。)

To profit off the Chinese market, Greek photographers have developed websites with galleries of stunning brides-to-be stretching languorously or leading white horses on the beach.

为从中国市场获利，希腊摄影师开发了一些网站，上面有令人惊艳的准新娘倦怠地伸展身体或牵着白马在沙滩上行走的照片。

The island’s officials, like their counterparts across Greece, have pursued Chinese investment during the country’s economic crisis, and appreciate the lucrative surge in Chinese visitors.

与希腊其他地区官员一样，岛上的官员在该国经济危机期间，一直在寻求中国的投资，并珍视可以带来收入的中国游客激增。

Luke Bellonias, an island official, said the Chinese had extended the tourist season deep into autumn when most Europeans and Americans have gone home. “They just love to take photos,” he said. “They don’t love the sun that much.”

岛上官员卢克·贝罗尼亚斯(Luke Bellonias)表示，中国人把旅游旺季延长到了深秋，那时大多数欧美游客已经回家。“他们就是爱拍照，”他说。“他们不太喜欢太阳。”

Still, he acknowledged, “This gets a bit out of control.”

但他也坦言，“这种情况有点失控。”

Foreign photographers, complete with makeup crews, large stocks of wedding dresses and stylists, live for months on the island but dodge taxes, he said. The financial police rarely enforce the law, giving free rein, he said, to people “holding wedding dresses above their heads and two or three bags and running from place to place.”

他说，外国摄影师带着化妆师、大量婚纱和造型师在岛上生活几个月，但逃避缴税。他说，金融警察很少执法，任由这些人“把婚纱举过头顶，拎着两三个包，从一个地方跑到另一个地方”。

For many couples, fees running into the tens of thousands of euros are a small price to pay for an image that they say encapsulates both true romance and social mobility.

对于很多情侣来说，数万欧元的费用只是一个小数，只要能拍出他们心目中既能体现真爱又能体现社会地位的照片就行。

“It’s as important, if not more important, than the ring,” said Olivia Martin-McGuire, the director of “China Love,” a documentary about the industry.

“它和戒指一样重要，甚至更重要，”奥利维亚·马丁-麦圭尔(Olivia Martin-McGuire)说，她是关于这个行业的纪录片《中国之爱》(China Love)的导演。

And for couples unable to afford the real thing, there are photo studios in Shanghai with Santorini sets.

如果有情侣拍不起实景，上海也有带圣托里尼布景的照相馆。

“It’s very meaningful,” Ms. Martin-McGuire said.

“这非常有意义，”马丁-麦圭尔说。

Having pre-wedding pictures shot on Santorini itself seemed to mean the world to 26-year-old Tzuchi Lin, and his fiancée, Yingting Huang.

对26岁的林子驰（Tzuchi Lin，音）和他的未婚妻黄英婷（Yingting Huang，音）来说，在圣托里尼岛拍摄婚纱照似乎意味着一切。

“It’s very exciting. Actually, we didn’t sleep last night,” Mr. Lin, who is known as Kenny, said in his hotel room early one recent morning. His 30-year-old fiancée, who uses the name Penny, applied hair spray in front of two wedding gowns draped from the window shutters.

“太兴奋了。我们昨晚都没睡，”前不久的一个早上，英文名Kenny的林子驰在酒店房间里说，他30岁的未婚妻、英文名Penny的黄英婷站在两件挂在百叶窗上的婚纱前喷发胶。

“Now she can show off to her friends: ‘I went to Santorini to have my pre-wedding photos,’” he said.

“现在她可以向朋友们炫耀：‘我去圣托里尼岛拍婚纱照了，’”他说。

The couple, from Taiwan, where some pre-wedding scholars say the industry began, slipped into something less comfortable. Mr. Lin wore a tuxedo with a maroon bow tie, and Ms. Huang an empire-waist white gown with lace bodice. She folded a second dress into a paper bag.

这对新人来自台湾，一些婚纱摄影研究学者表示，这个行业正是从台湾开始的。两人陷入了不大舒服的处境。林子驰穿上了燕尾服，系上了栗色领结，黄英婷穿上了蕾丝胸衣和白色高腰长裙。她把第二件衣服折起来放进纸袋里。

“We got them from Taobao,” Mr. Lin said. “China’s Amazon.”

“这是我们从淘宝上买的，”林子驰说。“中国的亚马逊。”

They fueled up on eggs in the hotel, but the waiter insisted Mr. Lin drink a shot of ouzo.

他们在酒店里吃了些鸡蛋补充能量，但服务员坚持要林子驰喝一杯乌佐酒。

“Now,” he said, “you can get married.”

“现在，”他说，“你可以结婚了。”

In the parking lot, they met their photographers, Toto Kuo, a Taiwan native, and her husband of three months, Georgios Galanopoulos. They met “the old-fashioned” way, Ms. Kuo said — “couch surfing.”

在停车场，他们遇到了摄影师，台湾人托托·郭（Toto Kuo，音）和她新婚三个月的丈夫乔治奥斯·加拉诺普洛斯(Georgios Galanopoulos)。托托·郭说，他们以“老式”的方式相遇——“沙发冲浪”。

The two photographers — who refused to have any pictures taken at their own wedding — led their clients to Oia, the town on the photo-bombarded tip of the island, where they set up shop in Mr. Galanopoulos’s family art gallery. They decided the bride-to-be should start posing in what Mr. Lin called the “more elegant” dress, as opposed to the “sexier” one in the bag.

这两名摄影师在自己的婚礼上拒绝拍摄任何照片，他们把客户带到伊亚，这座小镇位于岛上最热门的拍摄地，他们的工作室就位于那里的加拉诺普洛斯家族画廊里。他们同意，准新娘一开始应该穿上林子驰所说的“更优雅”的婚纱，而不是包里那件“更性感”的婚纱。

They fought the crowds elbowing toward a particularly sought-after blue dome backdrop, but a Houston couple posing for professional anniversary pictures had already claimed the perch. Mr. Galanopoulos, 50, said the island’s Greek photographers had begun discussing whether there should be a five-minute-per-iconic-backdrop policy.

他们奋力挤过拥挤的人群，挤向一个特别抢手的蓝色圆顶背景，但一对休斯敦夫妇已经抢到了这个位置。现年50岁的加拉诺普洛斯说，岛上的希腊摄影师已经开始讨论，是否应该规定，每个图像背景只能拍摄五分钟。

At a crowded lookout point, Mr. Galanopoulos instructed the couple to keep their lips puckered in a suspended near kiss.

在一个人满为患的瞭望台，加拉诺普洛斯指示这对新人在接吻前微微撅起嘴唇。

“There’s a wedding, a bride and a groom!” an American shouted as Mr. Lin accidentally pecked his betrothed’s open eye. “Novio!” shouted someone in Spanish.

“有婚礼，有新娘和新郎！”林子驰不小心啄吻了一下未婚妻睁开的眼睛，这时有个美国人喊了起来。“未婚夫！”有人用西班牙语喊道。

The sun started taking its toll. Ms. Huang sprayed sunscreen on her shoulders and pointed an electric fan at her throat. Her fiancé handed out water bottles.

烈日灼人。黄英婷在肩膀上涂了防晒霜，用电风扇吹着脖子。她的未婚夫在分发瓶装水。

They took a breather in the gallery, where Mr. Galanopoulos kept six wedding dresses on hand. Ms. Huang emerged from the basement in a red one with a 20-foot train.

他们在画廊里休息了一下，加拉诺普洛斯在那里放了六件婚纱。黄英婷从地下室出来时穿着红色婚纱，裙摆长20英尺。

At the church down the street, the caretaker shooed them away because the priest didn’t approve of the picture-taking. They moved to another rooftop, but Ms. Huang’s train nearly dragged over some dried dog droppings. Mr. Galanopoulos scraped them off with a pail and started shooting as his wife, holding the end of Ms. Huang’s train, struggled to create a billowing effect.

在街那头的教堂里，看门人把他们赶走了，因为牧师不同意拍照。他们移师另一个屋顶，但黄英婷的裙摆蹭过一堆干狗粪。加拉诺普洛斯用一个小桶把狗粪刮了下来，然后开始拍摄，他的妻子提着黄英婷的裙尾，努力制造出裙摆翻滚的效果。

With time running out, things started looking up. Ms. Kuo noticed an auspicious sweat stain marking her husband’s T-shirt. (“Babe,” she said, “You have a heart.”) The priest had left, and the church caretaker sneaked them inside the courtyard, where the posing couple received shouts of congratulations and blessings for marital bliss from tourists on the packed footpath alongside the church.

随着时间的流逝，情况开始好转。托托·郭注意到丈夫的T恤上有一个吉利的心形汗渍。（“宝贝，”她说，“你有一颗心。”）牧师走了，教堂看门人偷偷把他们带进院子。

After a wardrobe change into the “sexy” dress, the couple got their blue dome backdrop and nailed a rooftop proposal shot.

在换上“性感”长裙后，这对情侣拍到了蓝色圆顶背景，并且拍摄了屋顶求婚照。

“Will you marry me?” Mr. Lin said in English.

“你愿意嫁给我吗?”林子驰用英语说。

“Say yes,” coached Ms. Kuo.

“说愿意，”托托·郭教她。

“Yes,” the bride said.

“我愿意，”新娘说。

A crowd gathered below applauded warmly.

下面的一群人热烈地鼓起掌来。

来源：纽约时报