<p>The U.S. wedding business is expected to total some $57.9 billion this year, up 2.1 percent from last year, but still well behind the heady, pre-pandemic volume of just over $70 billion.</p><p><strong>The three largest business categories are ceremony and reception hosting, photography, and planning.</strong></p><p>These businesses were rocked hard by the pandemic, as government-mandated shutdowns and personal fears led to a 35 percent reduction in wedding-related business volumes between 2019 and 2020.</p>

Wedding Plans, Post Pandemic

<p>According to a recent study, just 20 percent of Millennials shunned marriage in 2020; today, 36 percent say they don't want to get hitched.</p><p>Further complicating matters, those who are marrying seem predisposed to smaller weddings versus the high-flying, pre-Covid days.</p>

Marriage Is No Longer A Priority

<p>The industry will need all the good news it can get.</p><ul><li>Many of the staple traditions of the wedding "event" are now being questioned by younger consumers.</li><li>Things like a paid wedding planner, big receptions, large diamond engagement rings, and matching bridesmaid dresses have all lost 10 or more points of popularity among young people.</li></ul>

All The Extravagant Rituals Are Being Questioned

<div dir="ltr"><button type="button" aria-label="White" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">White</button><button type="button" aria-label="Black" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Black</button><button type="button" aria-label="Red" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Red</button><button type="button" aria-label="Green" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Green</button><button type="button" aria-label="Blue" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Blue</button><button type="button" aria-label="Yellow" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Yellow</button><button type="button" aria-label="Magenta" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Magenta</button><button type="button" aria-label="Cyan" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Cyan</button></div><div dir="ltr"><button type="button" aria-label="100%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">100%</button><button type="button" aria-label="75%" 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type="button" aria-label="Arial" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">Arial</button><button type="button" aria-label="Courier" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Courier</button><button type="button" aria-label="Georgia" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Georgia</button><button type="button" aria-label="Impact" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Impact</button><button type="button" aria-label="Lucida Console" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Lucida Console</button><button type="button" aria-label="Tahoma" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Tahoma</button><button type="button" aria-label="Times New Roman" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Times New Roman</button><button type="button" aria-label="Trebuchet MS" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Trebuchet MS</button><button type="button" aria-label="Verdana" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Verdana</button></div><div dir="ltr"><button type="button" aria-label="None" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">None</button><button type="button" aria-label="Raised" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Raised</button><button type="button" aria-label="Depressed" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Depressed</button><button type="button" aria-label="Uniform" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Uniform</button><button type="button" aria-label="Drop Shadow" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Drop Shadow</button></div><div dir="ltr"><button type="button" aria-label="White" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">White</button><button type="button" aria-label="Black" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">Black</button><button type="button" aria-label="Red" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Red</button><button type="button" aria-label="Green" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Green</button><button type="button" aria-label="Blue" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Blue</button><button type="button" aria-label="Yellow" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Yellow</button><button type="button" aria-label="Magenta" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Magenta</button><button type="button" aria-label="Cyan" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Cyan</button></div><div dir="ltr"><button type="button" aria-label="100%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">100%</button><button type="button" aria-label="75%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">75%</button><button type="button" aria-label="50%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">50%</button><button type="button" aria-label="25%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">25%</button><button type="button" aria-label="0%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">0%</button></div><div dir="ltr"><button type="button" aria-label="White" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">White</button><button type="button" aria-label="Black" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">Black</button><button type="button" aria-label="Red" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Red</button><button type="button" aria-label="Green" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Green</button><button type="button" aria-label="Blue" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Blue</button><button type="button" aria-label="Yellow" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Yellow</button><button type="button" aria-label="Magenta" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Magenta</button><button type="button" aria-label="Cyan" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">Cyan</button></div><div dir="ltr"><button type="button" aria-label="100%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">100%</button><button type="button" aria-label="75%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">75%</button><button type="button" aria-label="50%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">50%</button><button type="button" aria-label="25%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false" dir="ltr">25%</button><button type="button" aria-label="0%" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true" dir="ltr">0%</button></div><p dir="ltr">In speaking about 2022, Kim Forrest of the bridal publication <em dir="ltr">The Knot</em> said, "Weddings are indeed back." She may be right. According to arbiter of all things nuptial, <em dir="ltr">The Wedding Report</em>, there will be an estimated 2.5 million weddings in America this year -- the most in 38 years! While that might seem a welcome positive, weddings did not escape reconsideration by consumers, who have had the pandemic to rethink almost every aspect of their lives.</p><p>In fact, even matrimony itself is being thought about differently now than it was just two short years ago. Now, fewer couples feel the necessity to marry. According to a recent study by the folks at YPulse, just 20 percent of Millennials shunned marriage in 2020; today, 36 percent say they don't want to get hitched. What's more, 71 percent of those aged 18 to 39 agreed with the statement "I don't need to be married to feel complete." So, with fewer young people prioritizing matrimony, those in the wedding business could be looking forward to leaner days ahead, the 2022 demand spike notwithstanding -- it could be a blip that represents little more than a one-time backlog moving through the system. Further complicating matters, those who are marrying seem predisposed to smaller weddings versus the high-flying, pre-Covid days.&nbsp;</p><p dir="ltr">According to <em dir="ltr">The Knot</em>'s&nbsp;"Real Wedding Study," the current average number of attendees per wedding today is 105, compared to 131 prior to the pandemic. In the YPulse study, roughly half of their sample agree that both backyard weddings (53 percent) and micro-weddings with only a small number of family and friends (47 percent) are here to stay. A not insignificant 29&nbsp;percent believe that online streamed weddings will be a fixture moving forward.</p><p>Also, today, approximately half of both Millennial and Gen-Z females who are open to marriage expressed openness to shopping for and buying their wedding dress online. These figures are a significant increase from 2020, and, with the statistics above, suggest what could be a significant reduction and/or shift in wedding spending moving forward. This extrapolation is supported by the fact that more than three-quarters (77 percent) of young people agree that weddings today have become too expensive. Every rule has an exception, however, and this one is no different, presenting an important opportunity for wedding industry operators.</p><p>BIPOC youngsters still want bigger and bolder weddings -- and they're less concerned about cost. BIPOC Gen-Zs and Millennials were 7 points more likely than their White/non-Hispanic peers to tie the knot in a more extravagant way. According to YPulse, 41&nbsp;percent of BIPOC respondents said that having a big wedding is an important life goal, with fully 32&nbsp;percent&nbsp;saying that they would rather have a big, expensive wedding than a small, inexpensive one. Accordingly, they represent an important consumer demo to the wedding industry moving forward. And because downward pressure won't be limited to the areas earlier identified, the industry will need all the good news it can get.</p><p>That's because many of the staple traditions of the wedding "event" are now being questioned by younger consumers. What were once must-have features that no proper couple would ever even consider passing over are now being increasingly kicked to the curb by Gen-Ys and Zs intent on doing things their own way. Things like a paid wedding planner, big receptions, large diamond engagement rings, and matching bridesmaid dresses have all lost 10 or more points of popularity among young people in the last two years alone. Printed invitations and bachelorette parties are both 9 points less popular today than in 2020. The loss in popularity of these items translates directly into a loss of consumer spending. That's why such swiftly changing consumer attitudes matter so much. As consumer preferences move out of categories the wedding industry has relied upon for revenue and gross profit since before the automobile, it's going to have to find ways to adapt -- or die.</p><p>An industry that has spent the last two years being battered by Covid-19 shutdowns and related consumer fears is now facing swiftly changing consumer sentiment that may take it from the frying pan straight to the fire. The pandemic may have changed the wedding celebration and the institution itself for good. What remains for the industry, then, is to identify opportunities to more profitably exploit the new reality while also taking chances to shape consumer sentiment in ways that are more beneficial to the industry. For even as 51&nbsp;percent find weddings less important than they used to be, fully 49&nbsp;percent believe they are just as important -- for better or for worse.</p><div>Mar 31, 2022</div><figcaption class="caption">The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.</figcaption><div><span>Read Next</span></div>

After two years of pandemic losses, the industry is on the upswing, but in a different way.

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Remote Work

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Love & Relationships

<p>In speaking about 2022, Kim Forrest of the bridal publication <em>The Knot </em>said, "Weddings are indeed back." She may be right. According to arbiter of all things nuptial, <em>The Wedding Report </em>, there will be an estimated 2.5 million weddings in America this year -- the most in 38 years! While that might seem a welcome positive, weddings did not escape reconsideration by consumers, who have had the pandemic to rethink almost every aspect of their lives. </p>

<p>In fact, even matrimony itself is being thought about differently now than it was just two short years ago. Now, fewer couples feel the necessity to marry. According to a recent study by the folks at YPulse, just 20 percent of Millennials shunned marriage in 2020; today, 36 percent say they don't want to get hitched. What's more, 71 percent of those aged 18 to 39 agreed with the statement "I don't need to be married to feel complete." So, with fewer young people prioritizing matrimony, those in the wedding business could be looking forward to leaner days ahead, the 2022 demand spike notwithstanding -- it could be a blip that represents little more than a one-time backlog moving through the system. Further complicating matters, those who are marrying seem predisposed to smaller weddings versus the high-flying, pre-Covid days.  </p>

<p>According to <em>The Knot </em>'s "Real Wedding Study," the current average number of attendees per wedding today is 105, compared to 131 prior to the pandemic. In the YPulse study, roughly half of their sample agree that both backyard weddings (53 percent) and micro-weddings with only a small number of family and friends (47 percent) are here to stay. A not insignificant 29 percent believe that online streamed weddings will be a fixture moving forward. </p>

<p>Also, today, approximately half of both Millennial and Gen-Z females who are open to marriage expressed openness to shopping for and buying their wedding dress online. These figures are a significant increase from 2020, and, with the statistics above, suggest what could be a significant reduction and/or shift in wedding spending moving forward. This extrapolation is supported by the fact that more than three-quarters (77 percent) of young people agree that weddings today have become too expensive. Every rule has an exception, however, and this one is no different, presenting an important opportunity for wedding industry operators. </p>

<p>BIPOC youngsters still want bigger and bolder weddings -- and they're less concerned about cost. BIPOC Gen-Zs and Millennials were 7 points more likely than their White/non-Hispanic peers to tie the knot in a more extravagant way. According to YPulse, 41 percent of BIPOC respondents said that having a big wedding is an important life goal, with fully 32 percent saying that they would rather have a big, expensive wedding than a small, inexpensive one. Accordingly, they represent an important consumer demo to the wedding industry moving forward. And because downward pressure won't be limited to the areas earlier identified, the industry will need all the good news it can get. </p>

<p>That's because many of the staple traditions of the wedding "event" are now being questioned by younger consumers. What were once must-have features that no proper couple would ever even consider passing over are now being increasingly kicked to the curb by Gen-Ys and Zs intent on doing things their own way. Things like a paid wedding planner, big receptions, large diamond engagement rings, and matching bridesmaid dresses have all lost 10 or more points of popularity among young people in the last two years alone. Printed invitations and bachelorette parties are both 9 points less popular today than in 2020. The loss in popularity of these items translates directly into a loss of consumer spending. That's why such swiftly changing consumer attitudes matter so much. As consumer preferences move out of categories the wedding industry has relied upon for revenue and gross profit since before the automobile, it's going to have to find ways to adapt -- or die. </p>

<p>An industry that has spent the last two years being battered by Covid-19 shutdowns and related consumer fears is now facing swiftly changing consumer sentiment that may take it from the frying pan straight to the fire. The pandemic may have changed the wedding celebration and the institution itself for good. What remains for the industry, then, is to identify opportunities to more profitably exploit the new reality while also taking chances to shape consumer sentiment in ways that are more beneficial to the industry. For even as 51 percent find weddings less important than they used to be, fully 49 percent believe they are just as important -- for better or for worse. </p>

Understanding the Changing Business of Weddings

Wedding Plans, Post Pandemic

Marriage Is No Longer A Priority

All The Extravagant Rituals Are Being Questioned

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