Wedding industry takes big financial hit from COVID-19
Engaged couples are forced to postpone their weddings due to social distancing measures.
Some couples know the value of a dollar.
Or in Sian Taylor’s case, she and her fiancé Andy know the value of a pound. The young couple got engaged in the U.K. back in May and have been planning their nuptials, which Taylor has been documenting on TikTok.
Throughout the planning process, Taylor realized various wedding services and supplies can quickly rack up a large price tag. This fact inspired the 24-year-old to upload a TikTok video listing off all the things that will not be a part of her wedding, including a guest book and personalized favors.
Sian Taylor and her fiancé Andy are doing away with pricey wedding items they don’t need or like to save money. Taylor shared a list of what they’re scrapping on TikTok and the video quickly went viral. She has now turned her budget bride tips into a multi-part series. (Sian Taylor)
According to Taylor’s June 14 video, she’s not having a guest book because she knows everyone who has been invited. She also found that save-the-date cards can be replaced with text messaging while wedding favors are rarely kept by guests.
Moreover, Taylor and her fiancé will have their wedding on a weekday to cut costs because they don’t see the point in spending an additional £2,000 to £3,000 for the same venue on a high-demand weekend. Another factor Taylor aims to save money on are her wedding day flowers, which can be replaced with non-perishable silk versions that she can keep for the rest of her life for a few hundred pounds sterling instead of £1,000 or more.
While Taylor’s video was hashtagged under popular terms like “budget bride” and “wedding diaries,” naysayers bombarded the comment section with their own objections toward Taylor’s distaste for pricey wedding items.
Several commenters expressed they believe the items Taylor be nixing are traditional must-haves instead of focusing on the money-saving tips she was offering. The video’s comment section has since been disabled, but the clip has received more than 366,600 views.
things we won’t be doing at our wedding ??♀️ #budgetbride #wedding #wedddingplanning #wedtok #weddingtok #weddingdiaries
In a statement sent to Fox News, Taylor wrote: “I think the main thing is a lot of people don’t agree with the things I’ve said, but personally for us as a couple we want to invest our money into more meaningful things for the wedding (a photographer and videographer are priceless to us!), rather than spending small bits of money that add up to a huge amount.”
“We believe everyone should have the wedding of their dreams, and if they love the ideas we’re scrapping then 100% they should have them,” she added in her email. “I mainly made the TikToks for anyone who was budget conscious and wanted more ideas to cut spending. We’re not a traditional couple, and due to COVID the prices for weddings seem to have skyrocketed so we jumped at the chance to save money in some areas in order to have the things that truly mean a lot to us.”
Since sharing her viral wedding day scrap list, Taylor has shared four other videos about services she’s skipping in addition to clarification and money-saving hack videos for TikTokers who have questions.
Taylor and Andy will ditch the traditional three-tier wedding cake, which she says cost around £400 without decoration where she lives, and instead, the couple is opting for a small six-inch cake and Krispy Kreme doughnuts that are less than £60.
part 2? don’t come at me x ##weddingtok ##wedtok ##weddingdiaries ##wedddingplanning
Other expensive items Taylor and Andy are doing away with include buttonholes, RSVP cards, an all-day DJ, a pricey veil, formal invitations from a printing company, a floral designer for centerpieces, a single-use wedding car and free bar, exorbitant bridesmaid dresses and makeup and designer shoes.
“I think a lot of people get caught in the materialistic side of weddings, but we want to focus on things that are important to us as a couple,” Taylor told Fox News. “I don’t feel like you should be in debt for one day of your life! We are hoping to honeymoon in Indonesia and Bali in [the] future when COVID has gone and want every spare bit of our cash towards that!”
For curious TikTokers who have questions about how some of Taylor’s guests feel about her choices, she’s shared that her guest list is very small and nearly everyone who is invited has already requested time off from work a year in a half in advance.
Meanwhile, other commenters have enjoyed Taylor’s free or low-cost wedding day hacks she’s shared so far, including DIY confetti, online invites, homegrown flowers and finding venues with in-house floral design or audio systems with an AUX cable connection.
5 free/low cost wedding tips #weddingtok #budgetbride #wedtok #weddingdiaries #wedddingplanning #wedding
In 2019, the average cost of a wedding in the U.K. was £31,974, according to Hitched.co – a leading wedding planning resource. That amount was equivalent to roughly $41,937.20 that year, Oanda Corporation’s foreign exchange data shows.
With countless weddings having been canceled, postponed or downsized in 2020 from the coronavirus pandemic, Hitched.co has yet to update its wedding spending survey. In the U.S. the average cost of a wedding went down from $28,000 in 2019 to $19,000 in 2020, according to The Knot’s Real Weddings Study.
As the pandemic has slowly begun to wind down due to global vaccination efforts, multiple wedding experts say business is booming for 2021 and 2022 with many couples rushing to secure venues and other services.
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