after more than two years of delays and cancelation
It's been a long road for a lot of couples to the altar,
weddings are bouncing back with a bang. This year is
the year of the wedding. Across the U.S. Couples are
racing down the aisle eager to shake off the covid 19
pandemic and finally tie the knot. Since we've made
that initial decision to wait, we were like, we're
already waiting. So let's just keep waiting until we
can be really sure that we're all going to be safe.
Like so many couples, Stephanie Dayton and her fiance
are finally getting married after having their wedding
postponed by the virus two year in a row when all my
guests are here in town and we're hanging out. I think
that it'll be, that's the part where all just pretty,
you know, according to the wedding planning site, the
nod. 2.6 million couples are estimated to say I do in
2022 are roughly 18% jump compared to average pre
pandemic wedding years. Industr experts say this year
will mark the most weddings since 1984 with octobe
slated to be the busiest month. People are ready to
celebrate. They're ready to get married and this is the
first time in two years that it is more normal as we
know it in the wedding world. Wedding planners
Susan Corrigan with big city bride in Chicago says all
hands on deck as they work to balance backlog wedding
with new engagements. People want the great american
wedding. They want the big ceremony, The bank dinner
dance. All of the fun that comes with it and it is an
absolute flash from multiday events to colorful
engagement rings the L G B.T.Q. Plus wedding magazine,
equally wed says couples are not holding back on
attention to details. But while it looks to be a record
number of couples ready to get hitched this year,
Corrigan says the wedding industry Isn't quite ready to
meet the demand, much like the rest of the world. Our
industry has changed so much since the pandemic. We're
all up for it and we're excited. But there are hu
that first hurdle is finding a date and location for
the big day, Saturdays are booked for most popular
places in most popular dates fo at least a year to two
years. Our industry is not set to level out until 2024,
which has left some couples no choice but to get
creative. We're seeing a ton of Friday and Sundays.
We've even had weddings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As
of recently, we get calls from people who are not
engaged and they're not going to be engaged for anytime
soon. They want to book their venue. They know it's
coming, we wanted to stick with june, we're getting
married on our like our weekend property, but even with
the date lockdown planners say finding vendors to serve
as your wedding can be tricky. A lot of people packed
up their bags and got out of the industry. So our
trusty caterers or florists or photographer a lot of
them have changed industries altogether because t
said, we don't want to be in an industry that is so
volatile and that can be so overlooked in the time like
the pandemic adding price hikes because of staffing
shortages and supply chain disruptions and planners say
couples will likely find themselves stuck with a bigger
bill. People need to realize that inflation is real,
it's here and it is affecting the wedding world for
everything from fuel prices that affect the flowers and
food and all the provisions tha are flown in or or or
trucked in. Those prices are increasing even shuttles
for weddings and things of that nature according to the
trade group. The wedding report The average cost of a
wedding in 2019 was $24,675. Industry experts say t
number will likely climb with some estimating it could
reach as high as $30,000. We're sort of recreating the
new norm when it comes to planning the great american
wedding. It's kind of a different ball game when it
comes to planning the wedding budgeting the wedding a
servicing it. So the best piece of advice planners have
for couples right now level set expectations and know
that you can have the wedding of your dreams as long as
you know in advance what it's going to take financially
with a timeframe friends and family. It's, you must
level set meg killing, Newsy Chicago.