The World of Weddings: The average cost and popular postponed dates

It's no surprise that like many other industries, the wedding industry and their couples have been thrown into chaos due to COVID-19. While many have been left shattered and disappointed, others are not taking ‘no’ for an answer and are determined to get hitched even if it means they can only have 10 of their closest present with them.

Many couples are looking into adapting their big day by looking into unique service offerings and staying away from the traditional large wedding which has also seen some business opportunities in the wedding market.

Eg: Drive Through Weddings Which has been popping up over news outlets the last couple of weeks.

Many couples have chosen to postpone their nuptials to late 2020 and into 2021 in favour of their original plans.

Businesses and support services such as @weddedwonderland have created Facebook groups where couples can discuss their issues and chat to other like-minded brides and vendors.

According to Wedded Wonderland, postponing a massive number of weddings hasn’t come without its complications especially with conflicting dates. By observing some trends, Wedded Wonderland has found that weddings are being postponed into particular time frames which will account for a busy wedding season.

Here are their findings:

• Mid-2020 weddings are being postponed to the latter half of 2020.
• A significant amount of people are postponing into early 2021.
• The most popular switch includes weddings originally planned for May 2020 into October 2020.
• Some May 2020 weddings are also being pushed back to fit into September, November and December of 2020.
• An increasing number of couples that had originally planned for their weddings to take place in July and August of 2020, are keeping the same date and moving it forward into 2021. Many of these are destination weddings, that need to take place in the warmer months.
• For now, it appears that the end of 2020 and beginning to middle of 2021, is going to be a race for dates.

Here’s what they recommend:

• Be proactive: If you are in favour of a particular date, you should get in quick. The upcoming wedding season is going to be one of the busiest ones yet, and you must prepare.
• Communicate with your suppliers
• Consider compromising
• Do your research
• Please be kind. It's needed more than ever! 
• Seek support if needed

Let’s get to the numbers part shall we. While weddings in 2020 and beyond are going to look a little different due to COVID-19, we thought it would be interesting to reflect of the findings of 2019 and predict what 2020 will bring in terms of the average cost of an Australia Wedding.

According to Wedded Wonderland, the average cost of an Australian Wedding is $62,579 (including Honeymoon)

The impact of COVID-19:

• Weddings postponed to later in 2020 and early 2021
• Décor and styling will be more refined as a result of budgeting
• A higher demand of rescheduled dates, particularly for the photography and videography fields.
• Destination weddings are out in favour of local wedding events.
• Couples will become more savvier in negotiating deals for their big day.
• The wedding industry will become more agile and dynamic in its offering.

Regardless of the current situation, love doesn’t change. Couples still want to get married more than ever and they will adapt and make it work to ensure they have the wonderful and memorable day they so deserve.

PF x