Economy leads couples to pinch wedding pennies
Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008
When Renee Falcone and Sal DiNino started planning their July wedding earlier this year, they decided quickly against a lavish and grand affair.
They’d be paying for much of the event themselves and needed to keep things simple and on budget.
But more than that, in these times when nearly everyone they know is trying to cut back amid rising costs, how could they ask people to dig a little deeper for fancy bridesmaids ’ dresses and tuxedos ?
“Everything is so expensive nowadays, right down to the marriage license and the rings,” says Falcone, 37, host of Celebrity Access on a Hartford radio station. “At this age, maybe we just have more wisdom about what’s important and what’s not. So everywhere we could cut a corner, everything we could do ourselves, we did.” Call it economical elegance. And Falcone and DiNino aren’t the only party hosts exercising financial restraint. The catering and event-planning industries report clients are scaling back on the lavish weddings, bar mitzvahs and corporate events that proliferated over the last decade.
The average cost of an American wedding dipped from $ 28, 732 in ’ 07 to $ 28, 704 this year, according to the Wedding Report, a wedding industry research company. That decline might not seem significant, but that’s the first drop in a decade.
A new report from the National Association of Catering Executives says that more than 60 percent of caterers and event planners say their clients are cutting back on luxuries and frills.
More than half say clients are looking for savings by booking weddings on Fridays and Sundays instead of Saturdays. Twelve percent report cancellations as a result of cost considerations.
“The economy is definitely having an effect on the way people are spending their money, but it’s not a huge overall concern,” says Daniel Briones, the association’s president and director of catering at Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia.
“People still want to have a fabulous wedding. They’re just making concessions in whatever they can to still have the things that are really important to them.” For Falcone and DiNino, having their closest family and friends gather to celebrate their union was important.
Not so important ? Things like limousines, fancy chair covers, butler-served hors d’oeuvres and hairdressers. Even the wedding cake didn’t make the cut.
“I have never gone to a wedding where everyone has loved the wedding cake,” Falcone says. “It looks pretty in pictures, but who really cares ?” Instead of a formal indoor affair with plated entrees on a Saturday, the couple found savings with a summer-casual outdoor buffet on a Friday. By doing it themselves, they spent $ 120 on invitations that could have cost $ 890, and $ 200 on seashell-theme table centerpieces instead of $ 2, 000 for flower arrangements.
The cake became strawberry shortcake and the bridal gown came off the rack.
“It’s still my dream dress, just my dream dress under $ 1, 000,” Falcone says.
And they weren’t just thinking of their own wallets. To keep gasoline costs down for guests, they consolidated the ceremony and reception to the same location.
Instead of asking bridesmaids to pay for frilly new boutique gowns, they just asked that they wear a navy-blue dress; the groomsmen will wear suits and pale yellow ties.
People are scaling back on accessories, doing their own flowers and even preparing some menu items themselves. Other ways they’re saving: skipping champagne toasts, inviting fewer people and selecting photographers and musicians who are just starting out.
“We’re being asked to get a little bit more creative in still making it an extremely special day... without being as lavish,” says Jay Ginewsky, a caterer and event planner for more than 30 years and owner of The Whisk event center in Canton, Conn. “They’re not asking me to cheapen up the entire event, they’re just asking me to be a little more economical. You know, don’t break the bank.” And it’s surprisingly not too difficult, he says.
“You can turn around and do the same Black Cod Picholine, but instead of center-cut Alaskan black cod, do it with tilapia,” Ginewsky says. “It’s a less expensive fish, and trust me, it tastes just as good.” Some vendors report they’re not so much seeing a decline in business as they are an increase in last-minute bookings — clients wavering about whether to make a big deal over a milestone event, then realizing the guilt they’d feel if they didn’t have a festive reception for their son’s bar mitzvah.
At the Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate, a popular wedding venue in Middletown, Conn., the booking calendar has several weekend openings in each of the next few months.
“In years past, we would have been booked every Friday, Saturday and Sunday,” says Deborah Moore, executive director. “We are a more expensive venue, so it could be that people on a tighter budget are not choosing the Wadsworth.” But she wonders if something else isn’t also at play.
After such tremendous growth over the past decade, “We may have reached a certain saturation in the wedding business,” Moore says. “It may be the result of more competition.” Event-planning and catering professionals say they’re not yet seeing a slowdown in the high-end market. But they are seeing it drastically in the corporate sector, as companies look to cut spending.
Most are confident the slowdown is part of a natural cycle, and business will eventually pick up again.
“Right now, everybody is feeling the pinch,” Ginewsky says. “And even if they don’t feel the pinch, psychologically they are. When you’re spending $ 70 to fill your gas tank, that psychologically affects you, even if you can afford it.
“ It’s all part of the cycle, though. It’ll come back.”
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