While 2020 may have been a washout for the wedding industry, 2021 is seeing a surge in marriages in the aftermath of the pandemic as increasing numbers of couples are in a hurry to get hitched.
Whether it’s apparel, footwear or jewelry, media services, music, food, venue rentals or travel, pretty much anything having to do with brides, grooms and the taking of vows is on the rise right now.
In fact, the marriage movement has just seen the country’s largest wedding and special event retailer, David’s Bridal, launch a new 24/7 YouTube channel that offers nuptially-inclined consumers an around-the-clock video stream of — you guessed it — other people’s weddings.
“This new streaming channel is the latest addition to the suite of wedding planning tools and resources [we] offer,” the Pennsylvania-based owner of over 300 bridal stores in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Mexico said in a press release, touting the planning content and inspiration the new service provides.
David’s said the launch of its new video channel marks its latest digital solution within a strategic effort to respond to the evolving needs of the modern couple, adding that the channel meets couples wherever they are in their wedding planning journey.
“We found that women are looking for inspiration all the time — including in the middle of the night — and wedding videos are their faves,” said Kelly Cook, chief marketing and IT officer at David’s Bridal. “The videos are real couples, real photographers, real venues, real vendors, real forever-afters. We were thrilled with the outpouring of videos sent to us for our launch.”
Demise Of The Zoom Wedding
After an unprecedented year of lockdowns and restrictions that shuttered bars and restaurants, battered the hospitality industry and caused wholesale cancellations or indefinite postponement of events, it’s safe to say couples are ditching the video conference version of vows and are ready for the real thing.
“Monday is the new Saturday in Palm Beach,” Palm Beach, Florida wedding and event planner Caroline Scarpinato told the Wall Street Journal. “With such limited availability, couples are willing to host their event on a Monday or Thursday.”
For some businesses, such as jewelers, a challenging year of confinement and crimped spending has left consumers with more money and motivation to spend on big-ticket items like engagement rings and wedding bands.
“The limiting factors on travel have, in many cases, meant that there has been more disposable income,” Matt McCawley of Bloch & Co. told trade publication Professional Jeweller of the coming sales boom. “Also, the fact that the wedding day itself has been delayed may well have assisted with this desire to make the engagement ring extra special,” McCawley added.
In what could be seen as the East Coast’s answer to Las Vegas’ famed Little White Chapel, New York City has seen the creation of a handful of small wedding venues in the past year, including the newly launched Sweet Hearts wedding chapel in Brooklyn, which is currently booking reservations for its $650 and up services into October.
“[Sweet Heart] Founder Julie Guinta wanted to provide an easy, mega-affordable option to her clients. Her hope is that SWEET HEARTS can be your high-touch alternative to getting hitched at the courthouse or flying to Vegas,” the new venue’s website reads.
Of course, all of this activity is dependent upon the continued downtrend of COVID cases and uptrend of inoculation, but cities such as Washington, D.C. are only about a week away from lifting long-standing bans on capacity limits and bans on activities such as dancing.
“On May 21, most restrictions on public and commercial activity, including capacity limits, types of activities, and time restrictions, will be lifted,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced this week, noting that large sporting events, concerts and bars and nightclubs would be capped at 50 percent capacity until June 11.
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