By Alexa Larson
Planning a wedding can be stressful, but add on a global pandemic and you’re in for a real treat. COVID-19 has had its effects on every industry in the world, but one industry in particular that has been dramatically affected is the wedding industry.
“So this whole situation has really caused a surge like I have never seen before,” said wedding photographer Madison Taylor.
After months and months of cancelled and postponed weddings, couples are excited to celebrate. The industry is seeing a surge in couples planning weddings for this year, as well as 2022 and 2023.
“It’s predicted that next year, 2022, will be one of the biggest years for weddings ever,” Lou Lou Floral florist Liza Weese said.
As a result, the demand for vendors has never been higher.
“People are really wanting their weddings to be something really special because a lot of people have pushed it off. So because of that, they are booking their vendors really far ahead of time to make sure that they really have who they want,” Taylor said.
A couple has an endless list of things to do to prepare for a wedding. From sourcing flowers, ordering a wedding dress, renting a venue, booking a photographer, to mailing out their invitations. Because of both the high demand and supply chain issues, couples and their vendors are facing many new challenges.
“COVID does present a lot of challenges though for flowers, in this industry especially, because there are so many shortages of everything,” Weese said. “This last month there was a huge shortage for white flowers. Anywhere, any wholesale place that you went you couldn’t find white flowers at all, like the only place you could find it was Costco.”
“My dress took a long time and there was like very limited inventory at the time when I was dress shopping,” said Sam Chronister, who recently got married.
Lesson is, if you’re looking to tie the knot, you better get a jump on it sooner rather than later.
