Author: Leanne Italy
Associated Press
Photo by Jill Wellington
NEW YORK (AP) — Venues and other vendors are in high demand as couples in the U.S. race to the altar amid a vaccination-era wedding boom.
As restrictions on large gatherings ease, wedding planners and other miracle workers say they have begun pushing back bookings to late 2022 and early 2023.
“Our trucks have run out of days this year, which has never happened before,” said Ben Goldberg, co-founder and president of the Food Truck Association of New York. “Our phones keep ringing and customers want Hold the wedding they had to postpone during COVID.”
The craze has also been fueled by couples who have continued to marry during the stricter pandemic period with few or no guests and are now on a second go-around with larger groups. They are competing for services with those who have been planning to get married this year.
“We’re seeing a lot of last-minute bookings with shorter program windows,” said Anna Noriega, who owns luxury Alore Event Firm in Miami. “As vaccinations become more common and on-site COVID testing becomes available at events, we’ve seen an increase in guest numbers and a boost in bookings.”
Namisha Balagopal, 27, of Emeryville, California, was one of the pair of brides.
She and Suhaas Prasad, 33, met in 2014 and got engaged in May 2019. Last August, they planned a traditional South Asian Indian wedding in Utah, where Baragopal grew up, with 320 guests and events over five days. But with the constraints of the pandemic, they can’t do that. They decided to hold a small sunset ceremony with fewer than 10 people at Muir Beach near San Francisco that month. This is where they first dated and where Prasad proposed.
Now, their grand celebration will take place outdoors on August 15 at its original location in Park City, Utah, with about 230 guests and events over a few days, including seven costume changes for the bride and groom.Many of their closest relatives in India are not allowed to travel to the US
“It’s just a big part of our culture,” Balagopal said of the event. “In the end, it’s really important for our parents.”
She’s basically beyond the frustrating stage of being a pop bride.
“The wedding is going to be so much fun. It’s just delayed gratification at this point,” Balagopal said with a laugh.
The craze for bridal and bridesmaid dresses is also on the rise.
The budget-friendly David’s Bridal chain, which has 282 stores in the U.S. and more in the U.K., Canada and Mexico, has 300,000 gowns in stock thanks in part to the 2020 wedding drought.
“Going forward, this year will be an unprecedented wedding season,” said Maggie Lord, vice president of David’s, whose online wedding planning guide Rustic Wedding Chic has been acquired by the company. David has been tracking extensive wedding data through the pandemic.
“Due to the number of people getting married this year, couples have gotten very creative and have ceremonies on Thursday nights or Friday afternoons,” Rhodes said. “We do know that 90 percent of brides this year want to have their wedding in an outdoor venue,” where there are fewer restrictions.
Rhodes said the pandemic has helped normalize the non-traditional aspects of weddings: for example, ending outdated hors d’oeuvres and buffets, more livestreaming to accommodate travel restrictions, and more online planning and shopping.
Competition for suppliers increases their prices. “They know they have customers who are willing to pay,” she said. “Wedding vendors are making up for a limited year if there are no jobs at all.”
Anna Price Olsen, associate editor of Bridal Magazine, said many vendors in the wedding industry are small businesses.
“They’re trying to meet the needs of new and deferred customers,” she said. “In order to do that, in many cases, they have to charge more. They have to hire additional resources to bring the staff back. The cost of merchandise is also increasing. There were only so many sheets last season, only so much Rent, and only so much to spend.”
One thing’s for sure, Lord says: The bride and groom are “bringing back the big wedding, the guest list is so well-planned that there may not be 300 people on a crowded dance floor.”
Tirusha Dave is the owner and CEO of Bravura Brides, an upscale wedding planning company used by Balagopal. She handled 10 weddings in 2019 and only three in 2020. Dave has booked 11 weddings this year, each with 250 to 300 guests planned.
“I think everyone is ready for things to bounce back, but only in a safe way,” she said.
Lord’s online planning site has more vendors booking after two years rather than the more traditional 12-month planning period, as couples stick to the venues they want and try to pull their special day completely out of the pandemic distance.
Justin Warshaw is the creative director and CEO of the global Justin Alexander Group, a wedding dress design and manufacturing company with five core brands, with more brands under licensing and white label arrangements.
From April 1st to May 15th, 2020, his wedding dress bookings increased by 593% compared to the same period this year. 88% of his 2,200 retailers in 80 countries are now open, with the US being its largest market.
Warshaw’s U.S. custom dress sales increased 40% compared to January-May this year, compared to January-May 2019, before the pandemic began
“A lot of it has to do with pent-up demand and what we envisioned to happen: So many COVID couples turned into COVID engagements, turned into weddings,” said the newly engaged Warshaw. “With the optimism about vaccination, people want to celebrate with family and friends and move on with their lives.”
Chappall Gage, who runs Susan Gage Caterers in Washington, D.C., with his mother, has seen an overall boom in special events, with 30 to 40 percent of their weekend business going to weddings.
“It’s a big thing that’s going to make a comeback very soon,” he said. “Now we are at a transition point where the micro weddings are coming to an end and people are now getting used to big weddings. When the mayor announced that she would allow dancing at the wedding, I could hear cheers from the city.”
