Chinese weddings are no meagre affair. Copious amounts of food, baijiu, the colour red filled the wedding venue; lest we forget the guests themselves. With this “姐” (“jie”; sister) and that “哥” (“ge”; brother) all staring at the grinning bride and groom on stage, who knew that so many people could fit in there? We descended from the stage to make a quick outfit change (one of three would you believe it!) and then continued to make our toasts around the room.
中国的婚礼不是一件微薄的事情。 大量的食物，baijiu，红色充满了婚礼场地；以免我们忘记客人自己。 这个“姐”（“jie”；姐姐）和那个“哥”（“ge”；兄弟）都盯着舞台上面带微笑的新娘和新郎，谁知道有这么多人能适应那里？ 我们下台快速换衣服（三个人中的一个，你会相信吗！） 然后继续在房间里敬酒。
Supplementing the baijiu for clear water (there was no way I was going to make my way around every table toasting away drinking rice wine) my name should have at the very least been in the running for that year’s Best Actor Oscar.
补充白酒清水（我不可能绕着每张桌子喝着米酒）我的名字至少应该竞选当年的最佳男主角。
I “grimaced”, made the necessary pulled face and faked downing the glass of “baijiu” in my hand, slowly making our way from table to table, “ganbei”ing the multitudes of aunties and uncles that I’d briefly met once or twice beforehand. DiCaprio eat your heart out. Side note; we did not get to taste one single ounce of all that glorious wedding feast, our own wedding feast, that adorned each table. Still a sour note to this day).
我“做了鬼脸”，做了必要的拉脸，假装倒在手里的“白酒”杯，慢慢地从一张桌子走到另一张桌子，“甘贝”了我之前短暂见过一两次的众多阿姨和叔叔。 迪卡普里奥把你的心吃掉。 附带说明；我们一盎司都没尝到那场光荣的婚宴，我们自己的婚宴，装饰着每张桌子。 至今仍是酸涩的音符）。
On what was one of the most memorable, but honestly hectic and absolutely knackering, days of my life so far, one thought kept coming back to me in the days afterwards; had all those decorations, outfits, table fancies and all the other wedding knickknacks really come from the inside of cardboard boxes?
到目前为止，在我生命中最令人难忘，但老实说，最忙碌和绝对令人疲惫的日子之一，有一个想法在之后的日子里不断回到我；所有这些装饰品、服装、餐桌花式和所有其他婚礼小饰品真的来自纸板箱里面吗？
My wife’s hometown is roughly a 4-hour drive from Chengdu into northwestern Sichuan, although that can be three times longer during the Chinese New Year, the world’s biggest annual mass migration, as millions (if not more) of people vacate the major cities and head home.
我妻子的家乡从成都到四川西北部大约有4个小时的车程，尽管在中国新年期间，这是世界上最大的年度大规模移民，时间可能要长三倍，因为数百万（如果不是更多）的人离开主要城市回家。
Not having a car of our own, Taobao and JD became our go to pre-wedding planners, suppliers and invisible guests all rolled into one. We depended on the support of those precious shops from all four corners of the Middle Kingdom to help supply our autumnal wedding. In retrospect, our wedding invitations should have said something along the lines of “We welcome you to celebrate the wedding of Mr and Mrs Wilson and their helpful companions; Yiwu and Hangzhou!
没有我们自己的车，淘宝和京东成为我们的婚礼前策划者、供应商和隐形客人合二为一。 我们依靠来自中王国四角的那些珍贵商店的支持来帮助供应我们的秋季婚礼。 回想起来，我们的婚礼请柬应该说“我们欢迎您来庆祝威尔逊夫妇及其乐于助人的同伴的婚礼；义乌和杭州！
During the actual wedding in Sichuan. My middle outfit (did I mention that we had to get changed three times throughout the day?) that was a suave tuxedo came from a tailors in metropolitan Shanghai, courtesy of kuaidi. One of my wife’s wedding dresses came from Marco Polo’s “Venice of the East”; courtesy of, you guessed it, Kuaidi. Wedding invites; Taobao. Wedding treats and fancies (your White Rabbit candy, jujubes and chocolates); also Taobao. The huge felt “福” that adorned our bedroom door; you guessed it, Taobao.
在四川的实际婚礼期间。 我中间的服装（我有没有提到我们一整天都要换三次衣服？） 那是一件来自上海大都市裁缝的一件优素的燕尾服，由kuaidi提供。 我妻子的一件婚纱来自马可波罗的《东方威尼斯》；你猜对了，是Kuaidi的。 婚礼请柬；淘宝。 婚礼款待和礼物（你的白兔糖果、大棗和巧克力）；还有淘宝。 装饰我们卧室门的巨大感觉“福”；你猜对了，淘宝。
Thanks Jack Ma, without whom we (or maybe just I) would have been tormented to grueling and long hours of endless wedding shopping.
感謝Jack Ma，如果没有他，我們（或者可能只是我）就會被折磨，漫長時間的無休止的婚禮購物。
The Chinese answer to eBay and Amazon all rolled into one has everything anyone would want, and much more besides just supplying our wedding demands. And no, I still haven’t looked at the bill, and I never will!
中国对eBay和亚马逊的回答合二为一，拥有任何人想要的一切，除了满足我们的婚礼需求外，还有更多。 不，我仍然沒有看賬單，我永遠不會看！
Taobao was relatively unknown outside China until 2014, when the record-breaking initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange of its parent company, Alibaba Group, drew worldwide attention.
淘宝在中国境外相对不为人知，直到2014年，其母公司阿里巴巴集团在纽约证券交易所创纪录的首次公开募股引起了全世界的关注。
Now I get requests from my parents, friends and relatives back in the UK to bring back random items found on Taobao; cheap Christmas “handmade” decorations, “red” memorabilia and even “湖南卤粉” (Hunan braised noodles; quite the delicacy in my family household!).
现在，我收到英国父母、朋友和亲戚的请求，要求在淘宝上随机找到的物品回来；便宜的圣诞“手工”装饰品、“红色”纪念品，甚至“湖南卤粉”（湖南红烧面；在我家非常美味！）。
If my parents could have been sent by kuaidi, then it would have been an all rounded kuaidi wedding. But unfortunately, that honour goes to Air China. Taobao and Jingdong, you’re missing a trick by not investing in airlines, you’d make a fortune!
如果我的父母可以被kuaidi送来，那将是一场全面的kuaidi婚礼。 但不幸的是，这个荣誉是给了中国航空公司的。 淘宝和京东，你们错过了一个不投资航空公司的把戏，你们会发财的！
It’s just a shame that our wedding ceremony was just before the famous Singles’ Day Sales. Taobao is famous for its massive sales events, particularly on Singles’ Day (11 November), which has become the world’s largest online shopping day. Taobao and other Alibaba platforms annually offer huge discounts and promotions during this event, driving billions of dollars in sales.
可惜我们的婚礼就在著名的光棍节销售之前举行。 淘宝以其大规模的销售活动而闻名，特别是在光棍节（11月11日），它已成为世界上最大的网上购物日。 淘宝和其他阿里巴巴平台每年都会在这次活动期间提供巨大的折扣和促销活动，推动数十亿美元的销售额。
My big fat kuaidi wedding went without a hitch and I am still happily married 5 years later.
我盛大的kuaidi婚礼顺利进行，5年后我仍然幸福地结婚。
All of those cardboard boxes unpacked and unfolded, I raise a glass to the many hardworking members along the supply chain.
所有这些纸板箱被拆开并展开，我向供应链上许多勤劳的成员举杯。
That’s from those in the warehouses to the drivers, the kuaidi “little brothers”, as many refer to them, and those who do all of that scanning in your local Cainiao!
那是从仓库里的人到司机，kuaidi“小兄弟”，正如许多人所说的，以及那些在你当地的菜鸟中进行所有这些扫描的人！