Go Big or Go Home: Wedding Costs in 2022

 

By Emily Gaudette

    Teresa and John Mailloux married in 2017 in the Berkshires. They invited 220 guests to their spring wedding, and 174 guests attended.

    Their country club wedding cost a total of $30,150. They were aiming for $20,000 to $25,000, but quickly realized that it wasn’t a sustainable goal without sacrificing the things they valued for their wedding.

    “It’s a lot of money to spend on one day when you could go to the courthouse for a fraction of the price, but we wanted everyone to be there,” Teresa Mailloux said.

    Weddings are booming these days. Meals provided by the venue can cost upwards of $100 per person, and caterers can charge thousands of dollars. The couple must also worry about flowers, the cake, wedding gowns, music, the photographer and videographer, and any other expenses that pop up.

    The wedding services industry has the fifth largest market size in the Other Services industry in the United States in 2022, according to IBIS World, a multinational company that provides a large database of industry research reports and analyses. Moreover, the U.S. wedding industry is worth $61.9 billion in 2022.

    David Wood, president of the Association of Bridal Consultants, characterizes the wedding industry as “the last huge, fragmented industry,” with many local businesses still providing a majority of services. The Association of Bridal Consultants—also known as ABC Wedding Planners—trains individuals to be certified wedding planners.  

    Lana Sigrist, a manager at New York Lace Couture in Taunton, Massachusetts, who has worked in the bridal industry for 12 years, said the rise of online markets is playing a role in some cases when brides are shopping for dresses.

    “People now have the opportunity to go to a website and pick five wedding dresses and send them to their home,” Sigrist said.  

    But the bridal boutiques are still the place for brides looking for a perfect dress that fits just right. Boutiques like New York Lace Couture emphasize the importance of the experience. New York Lace Couture provides stellar customer service with seamstresses in house. Clients can buy their gown, customize it, and alter it in one spot.

    “People are looking for that personal experience,” Sigrist said.

    Jen Gaudette found her perfect dress at a bridal consignment shop in Andover, Massachusetts. However, for her bridesmaids’ dresses, she shopped at a chain bridal store.

    “The small, locally-owned aspect of the consignment store treated their customers almost as if they were royalty. Not only did we have the experience of choosing the dresses I wanted to try at my leisure, but I also received so much undivided attention from the woman who was helping us,” Gaudette said.

    In contrast, she described the employees as “unprofessional and rude” when shopping at a chain.

    Fiancés Jen Gaudette and Billy Benson found their photographer through Gaudette’s high school friend. The friend’s parents run a photography business out of Haverhill, Massachusetts, and shot Gaudette and her sister’s senior year photos. The Van Ravestyns also shot Benson and his brothers’ senior pictures.

    “Choosing Michel seemed like the natural choice. When talking with him, he just brought up memories of past work he had done for both sides of the families, and clearly knew our history so well. Having him as a part of this important day makes it feel even more like home, something unique to us,” said Gaudette.

    Still, photography will cost Gaudette and Benson $3,300.

    Websites like The Knot have made it easier to plan weddings, but at a cost of having the personalized wedding planning experience. The Knot gives couples the chance to be their own wedding planners for free. It covers everything from budgeting, booking vendors, the wedding website, the registry, wedding gowns, rings, and party favors.

    Wood argues that the visual nature of the internet appeals to excited couples searching for the perfect venue or dress.

    “The internet is helping and hurting—clients see pictures of amazing events but no price tag,” said Wood, “we also see a continued push for individual branding. Everyone wants something different.”

    Inflation is helping boost the cost of weddings. Gaudette and Benson’s venue reserves the right to increase plate costs up to 8 percent by the time of their wedding in November 2023. Each plate could cost up to $130.

    In comparison, the Mailloux’s meals ranged from $25 to $50 per plate in 2017. Vendor meals—meals provided to the vendors at the wedding, such as the photographer or the DJ—were priced the lowest, with the sirloin dinner priced the highest.

    In 2022, the average wedding costs $27,000, according to the report, U.S. Wedding Industry Statistics by Zippia, a company which examines industries and jobs. That compares with $20,300 in 2020, according to The Wedding Report, a website that compiles accurate data conducted by the Census Pulse Survey, the Bureau of Economic Analysis data, the Census Bureau, the Department of Labor, and others.

    Olivia St. Laurent and her fiancé Jimmy Nigzus are planning their wedding for the summer of 2024 and are paying for all of it themselves. Their budget is $30,000 but inflation may change that.

    “We’ll see what happens,” St. Laurent said.

    The pandemic forced many couples to postpone or dramatically downsize their weddings. According to U.S. Wedding Industry Statistics, 63 percent of engaged couples had to postpone their weddings in 2020 due to COVID protocol.  

    The industry is slowly coming back as postponed weddings are happening and more couples booking are now that life is returning back to normal. It has bounced back by 62.5 percent since 2020 according to 2022 U.S. Wedding Industry Statistics by Zippia.

    “More people are looking for the [wedding] experience, especially after COVID,” Sigrist said.