I was recently featured in the Washington Post regarding the wedding boom in Washington, DC, and the need for more prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.
…To keep up, wedding singers are booking three ceremonies a day. Venues are scheduling receptions every day of the week, including Mondays. And attorneys are working overtime to hammer out prenuptial agreements.
“I’m getting calls saying, ‘I’m getting married in 2 weeks, how soon can we get this done?’ ” said Carolyn Goodman, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who is seeing brisk demand for pre- and postnuptial agreements. “After two years of uncertainty, people want to have some control over their lives.”
That pent-up demand, combined with too little supply, is also leading to higher price tags. Average spending on weddings rose 25 percent last year, to more than $27,000, according to the Wedding Report. Many weddings planners say they expect that cost to tick up even higher this year as companies raise prices and tack on fuel surcharges.
Corgodan, the wedding planner in Chicago, says she’s advising couples to budget up to 30 percent more than they normally would. She’s also encouraging them to pick more affordable local options when they can: wildflowers from Indiana instead of orchids from Ecuador, wines from Michigan instead of California, and locally grown beef instead of imported seafood.
“Behind the scenes, most people in our industry lost their jobs and just are not fully back yet,” she said. “There are so many moving parts.”
Demand for her wedding planning services is up 45 percent from a year ago, although the most coveted sites are already full for the next two years. Some couples are so eager to lock in available dates, she said, that they’re booking venues before they’ve even proposed.
But even once the location is secure, many wild cards remain. Caterers report trouble finding saffron, vanilla extract and, at times, beef and chicken. Innkeepers say they’re short on towels and bed linens. And wedding planners say it’s becoming increasingly difficult to track down party favors and flip-flops for the dance floor.