國外離婚慶祝業生意紅火

After finalising a painful divorce Wendy Lewis decided there was only one way to celebrate - by blasting her wedding dress with a machine gun.

To get the job done the newly divorced American gathered her female friends - and the dress - and flew to Las Vegas, Nevada for a long weekend.

Upon arrival in Vegas the trip to a shooting range was arranged by a small firm at the forefront of one of the city's fastest-growing business sectors - divorce Party planning.

And while what happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, the planner in question, Glynda Rhodes, 51, is happy to take up the story.

"Ms Lewis had never picked up a gun before, but she brought her wedding dress into the shooting range and hung it up," she says.

"Oh if you could have seen the look on her face when she was shooting at her dress. You could just feel that she was letting all that anger out."

A long-established Vegas-based events planner, Ms Rhodes was historically more used to organising bachelor and bachelorette parties (stag and hen dos) for the hordes of young Americans who fly into the city for one last celebration of single life.

Yet with more than half of marriages in the US now ending in divorce, including her own, Ms Rhodes started to receive a growing number of inquiries from people - both women and men - wishing to celebrate the end of their wedlock.

So in 2012 she launched a new company - The Divorce Party Planner - and the business has boomed ever since, a situation mirrored at similar firms in Vegas and across the US.

In addition to the visits to shooting ranges, a popular option called "Glocked and Loaded", Ms Rhodes arranges for divorce parties to get entry to nightclubs, get tables at restaurants, play rounds of golf... or visit strip shows.

She also organise skydives for people who want to "jump right back into being single".

Some of Ms Rhodes' customers celebrate with a skydive Ms Rhodes says that the cost of the set packages - which also have names such as "Barely Survived", "Self Sufficient", and "I Got It All" - typically range from $1,000 to $4,800 (£600 to £3,000).

However, prices can skyrocket if someone really, really wants to celebrate getting divorced...在結束了一段充滿傷痛的婚姻之後，溫迪·劉易斯（Wendy Lewis）打算採取一種特殊方式來慶祝——用機關槍打爛自己的婚紗。

爲了完成慶祝禮，剛離婚的美國女子溫迪帶着她的幾名女性朋友——和婚紗——前往拉斯維加斯（Las Vegas）度過這個漫長的週末。

剛到那裏，這場射擊之旅就已經被一家小公司安排好了，這家公司是離婚派對策劃行業中的佼佼者。離婚派對策劃是拉斯維加斯發展最快的行業之一。

既然拉斯維加斯之旅會發生什麼，想必要待在拉斯維加斯才知道，上述公司51歲的策劃人格琳·達羅茲（Glynda Rhodes）很樂意給我們講講這個故事。

“劉易斯女士之前從沒拿過槍，但她還是把自己的婚紗帶進了射擊場，並掛了起來。”她說。

“如果你看到她打完婚紗之後的表情，你就能體會到她那怒氣全消的暢快心情了。”

羅茲（Rhodes）女士多年來一直從事拉斯維加斯當地活動策劃的工作。她過去常常在大羣的單身男女青年間組織派對。這羣涌入城市的美國青年都希望藉此機會慶祝最後的單身生活。

至今，美國人半數以上的婚姻都以離婚收場，這其中也包括羅茲女士本人。而她也開始收到越來越多人的詢問，男女都有，這些人希望慶祝一下自己已經結束的婚姻。

因此，2012年羅茲女士成立了一家公司——“離婚派對策劃人”（The Divorce Party Planner）。公司業績蒸蒸日上，同樣的情況也發生在城裏其他相同類型的公司，甚至在全美都有所體現。

除了射擊之旅，還有一個大受歡迎的選擇——“Glocked and Loaded”。羅茲女士安排的派對項目有夜店狂歡、餐廳聚餐、打高爾夫……或者觀看脫衣舞表演。

針對那些想“重新跳進單身圈”的人，她還組織了跳傘活動。

一些羅茲女士的客戶正在用跳傘慶祝的顧客

羅茲女士說，套餐分爲“初步重生”（Barely Survived）“自我滿足”（Self Sufficient）“得到一切”（I Got It All）等，花費從1000美元到4800美元不等（約600到3000英鎊）。

然而，如果有人非常非常迫切地想要慶祝離婚，價格就會猛漲了。'Free at last'

For those of us who might wish to throw a more modest and sedate party to mark the end of a marriage, ordering a "divorce cake" could be the way forward.

At one bakery in Florida, Elite Cake Creations in Cooper City, near Miami, they are now getting three to four requests for divorce cakes each month.

Owner Beatriz Otero, says she once made a cake for a male client who asked for it in the shape of a golf bag, with a sign on it that read "free at last, going golfing".

Most requests, however, are for a picture of a bride dragging a groom by the leg, with a sign that says "take him to the trash".

Other cakes may feature grooms being eaten by an alligator, or dismembered in a Jacuzzi.

Ms Otero says: "For one of my customers we did her wedding cake, then five years later we were doing her divorce cake.

"Relationships are hard. My way of helping them is making a sour situation a little bit sweeter."

An Elite Cake Creations' divorce cake for 10 people typically costs about $70, with the customer being able to choose from more than 150 different flavour and fillings combinations.

'Acknowledging loss'

While entrepreneurial small firms across the US are happily making money from the increase in the number of people celebrating a divorce, why has the phenomenon grown so strongly in recent years? And is it a good thing?

As its name suggests, Divorce Hotel checks couples into hotels so they can agree their divorce terms Psychologist Robin Deutsch, director of the Centre of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law, at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, says it is a development which should be welcomed.

"The growth of the divorce [celebration] industry speaks to the fact that people want to acknowledge loss through ritual," she says.

"Many people find release through it - I had one couple in my office who said their vows backwards.

"I think it gives them a sense of hope and closure, it's a positive thing.

"People do what they feel they need to do to move on. What they do, what kind of ritual they have, that's their choice."

“終於自由了”

對於那些希望用較爲安靜的方式紀念婚姻結束的人來說，訂做“離婚蛋糕”是一種備受推崇的方式。

佛羅里達州（Florida）的庫珀市（Cooper）有一家名叫“精英蛋糕”（Elite Cake Creations）的麪包店，就位於邁阿密（Miami）附近，這家店現在每個月會接到3—4個離婚蛋糕訂單。

店長比阿特麗絲·奧特羅（Beatriz Otero）說道，她曾爲一位女性顧客做了一個高爾夫球袋形狀的蛋糕，上面還寫着“終於自由了，打高爾夫去”。

而大部分顧客則要求蛋糕上有新娘拖拽新郎腿的圖案，就好像在說“把他丟進垃圾桶裏”。

還有一些蛋糕很有特色，比如新郎被短吻鱷吃掉、新郎被肢解在浴缸裏等。

奧特羅女士說：“有一位顧客，我們爲她做了結婚蛋糕，而五年後爲她做離婚蛋糕的又是我們。

“走到這一步都不容易。我能做的就是幫助他們在辛酸中加入一丁點的甜蜜。”

“精英蛋糕”店的離婚蛋糕是10人份，通常大約花費70美元。顧客可以在150種不同的口味和餡料組合中自由選擇。

“承認婚姻失敗”

遍佈全美的創業公司紛紛從不斷增加的慶祝離婚的人口中賺到錢，可是，爲何近些年來離婚勢頭愈演愈烈？這是一種好的現象嗎？

“兒童、家庭和法律卓越中心”（the Centre of Excellence for Children, Families and the Law）主任，麻省專業心理學學院的專家羅賓·盧伊奇（Robin Deutch）認爲，這只是一種應該得到認可的發展前景。

“離婚（慶祝）業的蓬勃發展反映了一個現實，人們希望通過用儀式承認婚姻的失敗。”她說。

“很多人都從中獲得瞭解脫。——我有過一位合法的配偶，但那都是過去的事了。

“我認爲這給了他們希望和婚姻終結的如釋重負感。這是一件積極的事情。

“人們做着自己認爲需要做的事情。無論做什麼，採用怎樣的方式，這都是他們的選擇。”Hotel weekends

In the Netherlands, one company is hoping to help more couples celebrate their divorce - together.

The business in question is called Divorce Hotel, and here is how it works.

For a flat fee of about 4,000 euros ($5,000; £3,000), couples going through a divorce check into a hotel on a Friday. They then meet with a solicitor who acts as a mediator over the weekend, before checking out on Sunday - divorced.

The company is brainchild of former marketing man turned entrepreneur Jim Halfens, who thinks that going through a divorce should be quick, and not too expensive.

He came up with the idea after seeing a friend go through a tough divorce, and after time working for a legal firm.

Rather than owning hotels, Divorce Hotel has partnered up with six such establishments across the Netherlands, and one in New York. Mr Halfens now plans to expand to other countries.

"We are convinced that when couples decide to divorce they want to do it in a positive and decent way, not fight for years," he says.

After signing the divorce papers on the Sunday, Mr Halfens - who claims that the company has a 95% success rate - says that many couples drink champagne together to celebrate.

Yet for those divorces which are significantly more acrimonious, there is always the option of ultimately shooting up your wedding dress or tuxedo in Las Vegas.

旅館週末

在荷蘭，有一家公司能夠幫助離婚後的夫妻二人共同舉行慶祝。

上面介紹的這個公司叫“離婚旅館”（Divorce Hotel），它的工作流程如下：

花費大約4000歐元（約5000美元；3000英鎊），離婚夫婦就可以在週五憑藉離婚證進入旅館。然後他們會見到一位律師，也就是此次週末活動的調解人，一直到週日結賬退房前。

這家公司是吉姆·哈爾芬斯（Jim Halfens）智慧的結晶，他曾經做過營銷，現在已經轉型成創業者。在他看來，離婚慶祝的進程應該快速，同時還不能太貴。

在目睹了一位朋友痛苦艱難的離婚歷程後，吉姆突發奇想，有了這個主意。然後他又在一家法律公司幹了一段時間。

“離婚旅館”不僅僅是酒店而已，它已經和6家相同的機構結爲同盟，遍佈全荷蘭，其中還有一家在紐約。目前，哈爾芬斯先生正籌備着在其他國家開分店。

“我們確信，當一對夫妻打算離婚時，彼此都想採取一種積極又得體的方式，而不是長年累月的不停爭執。”他說。

這位聲稱公司有95%成功率的哈爾芬斯先生說道，週日簽訂了離婚協議之後，很多夫妻還一起用香檳來慶祝。

不過，對那些爲離婚爭執得不可開交的夫妻來說，他們還是可以選擇去拉斯維加斯的射擊場打穿自己的婚紗或燕尾服。