The explosive wedding boom seen last yr is winding down, but the common cost of nuptials remains to be going up, based on latest data from Zola.
Couples will shell out a mean of $29,000 this yr to say “I do” – up from $28,000 last yr, the digital wedding planning platform found. In 2019, before the Covid pandemic created a congested wedding market, that number was closer to $24,700.
The expected jump is largely due to rising, inflationary costs that vendors are facing, the corporate said.
In a January survey of about 300 wedding vendors, 83% reported the price to run their business will increase in 2023, 26% reported the price of products have gone up and 17% said couples have smaller budgets for services.
Greater than 77% of vendors surveyed said they raised rates for 2023.
Emma Dykstra, the office manager of family-run Deborah’s Specialty Cakes in Athens, Georgia, said supplier costs have in some cases “tripled or worse,” forcing her team to boost prices twice within the last yr.
“We have needed to sort of adjust for that, after which also we wish to be sure we pay our employees as well so we have needed to up their hourly rates” said Dykstra, whose mom began the bakery. “That translates to barely higher costs for the client.”
The bakery has had to boost prices by a few third or more, she said, which she says is leading more customers to buy elsewhere. Dykstra estimated that before costs jumped, one in 10 customers would take their business elsewhere due to pricing concerns — now she estimates it’s closer to 1 in five or one in six.
“We’ve not raised our price in ages and we hate having to try this because we actually need to be as accessible to people as possible, but we’re definitely having to cater to the next income clientele,” she said.
Couples held greater than 2.6 million weddings within the U.S. last yr, based on Emily Forrest, Zola’s director of communications. That number is coming down in 2023 as backlogs related to the Covid pandemic begin to clear.
To mitigate rising costs, Forrest said she’s seeing more couples forgo typical traditions, shop on the secondhand market and even go for a weekday or morning celebration.
“They’re really very eyes open about what the price of a marriage is and what decisions they should make that fit their personal style and fit the day that they’ve possibly been fascinated by for a very long time,” she said.
Paige Thom, co-founder and lead planner of Weddings by Leigh, a Las Vegas-based wedding planning service, said she is not seeing many couples cut their budgets but noted many are way more focused on the worth of services than they were up to now.
Thom said couples are increasingly asking questions like, “What services am I getting? How much time am I getting? What is absolutely the most effective bang for the buck at once?”
“What am I getting for this and is it value it?”
Catering costs and other labor-intensive services are a specific pain point, Thom said, as vendors raise wages to support employees.
“Florals or installations or anything that is really decor-heavy that requires extra labor on site, those costs are rising dramatically,” she said.
“Everyone’s sort of feeling the hurt — rent, groceries and gas — so for those who’re attempting to keep a team, similar to we’re, you are giving raises,” she continued. “The concept of low-cost labor is not a thing anymore.”
