Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic, its effects on businesses still linger. But there is one impacted business that might just come as a surprise – wedding planning.
In 2020, social distancing and health concerns caused many venues to temporarily close their doors, leaving marriage rates at 5.1 – an all time low in the U.S. Data from 2024 has not yet been released, but in 2022 these rates returned to pre-pandemic levels of 6.2. However, the growth of social media has influenced couples to become more independent when planning their ceremonies.
As restrictions eased, couples and wedding planners alike encountered a new landscape shaped by the pandemic’s lasting impact. This new era brought about a rise in personalized, intimate weddings, with couples increasingly turning to social media for inspiration and guidance. In this evolving landscape, the role of social media in shaping modern weddings has become evidently clear.
Pandemic planning
Since 2000, the number of marriages in the United States has seen a slow decline. But in 2020, according to the CDC, this number significantly dropped to 1,676,911, compared to the 2,015,603 marriages the year before. In Connecticut, there were approximately 5,770 marriages in 2020 – a sharp decline from the approximate 9,626,279 marriages in 2019.
Lockdown measures left many couples no choice but to postpone their wedding receptions.
However, as the pandemic progressed, the wedding industry began to adapt, accommodating as best as it could to the situation. Rather than wait until the pandemic came to an end, some couples preferred to host small receptions. This soon became a trend among couples in Hamden, as well.
Carisa Lockery, owner of Pink Olive Events, has coordinated several weddings in the Hamden area. During the pandemic, she witnessed couples’ frustrations as they were faced with the choice of downsizing their ceremony or canceling it all together.
“They were tired of planning,” she said. “They were tired of waiting to hear what they were allowed to do on their wedding day.”
Lockery mentioned how Covid-19 initially put the entire industry at a standstill. Yet, couples were still determined to get married, despite the difficulties of hosting large gatherings. This left wedding planners to find ways to adapt and evolve in order to provide their services.
Pink Olive Events offered clients “micro wedding” packages, which included lower pricing for couples whose incomes were negatively affected by the pandemic. Additionally, the company implemented a venue research package, which assisted couples in finding venues approved to host smaller gatherings with a lower minimum guest number. These packages included Hors D’oeuvres and a three course dinner, a photographer, justice of peace, bouquet, boutonniere, DJ, cake, wedding planner, 20 guests, and four hours of wedding day services.
Like many other venues, Pink Olive gave couples the option to help coordinate their ceremony during the pandemic and plan their reception once restrictions were lifted.
It was creative strategies such as these that helped keep the industry alive in Hamden and its surrounding towns. The pandemic saw a trend of receptions hosted in restaurants, outside of venues, and even in the bride or groom’s backyard. As frustrated as many couples were, they did what was necessary to celebrate their love and commitment with family and friends.
The rise of social media ceremonies
The end of the pandemic marked a significant shift towards digital wedding planning. Couples turned to social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to seek inspiration, connect with vendors and even book their planners through direct messaging. Today, many prefer to hold their consultations over Zoom, rather than meet face to face with their planner. Society’s post-pandemic transition into the digital era has held a prominent impact on the industry.
Social media apps have become wedding planners themselves, to a certain extent. Apps such as Instagram and TikTok offer an array of resources and tools that provide the knowledge and inspiration needed to kickstart the wedding planning process.
Wedding influencers became more common following the pandemic, feeding couples with free content to help them bring their dream wedding to life. These influencers post hundreds of tips and tricks, venue ideas, and DIY decoration tutorials.
The growth of wedding planning on social media has in turn led to the growth of DIY weddings. Rather than spend money on a coordinator, which costs around $2,000 on average, many couples have opted to do the planning themselves and minimize their budgets. TikTok has even begun a trend of minimalist weddings, taking away the stress of planning a large, extravagant event.
The Finance Brides, featuring influencer Courtney Lynn, frequently posts advice and inspiration for engaged couples on any budget. The account features content ranging from venue ideas to lessons Lynn learned while planning her own wedding last year. Lynn even has an Amazon storefront featuring fashion items and bridesmaids gift ideas. With 559.6K followers and 5.8M likes, the profile is a prime example of how wedding micro influencers have entered the industry and gained a following by targeting young couples on social platforms.
Richard Wang, who currently lives in Middletown, is in the process of planning his wedding for the upcoming year. He and his fiancé have utilized social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to research venues, bands and florists. Wang found vendors’ social media pages to be useful when making these decisions.
“They’d post pictures of other weddings often to social media so we could see examples of what the place would look like set up for a wedding,” he said.
Wang does not intend on hiring a wedding planner, as he feels him and his fiancé are organized enough to handle the planning on their own.
As beneficial as social media may be for couples, local wedding planners have mixed opinions on how it impacts their businesses.
Raquel Simmons, owner of RS Events Co. in Hamden, believes that social media has given couples the opportunity to become more involved in the wedding planning process, making it easier for her to help execute their visions.
Simmons recently helped plan a wedding in which the couple utilized DIY decorations found on social media.
“I did just have a recent couple that did the DIY thing and she loved it,” Simmons said. “I think that there’s always been some platform or some way of couples finding those inspirational ideas. Social media has just handed it to us.”
However, Lockery believes social media has hurt Pink Olive Events, being that it can influence couples to opt out of hiring a planner.
She is a part of several Facebook forums, where couples will ask for wedding advice, as well as photographer and venue recommendations. These forums exist on other platforms as well, through comment sections and other forms of user generated content.
The Knot, a popular wedding planning site, conducted a study consisting of 10,000 couples in the United States. It was found that for couples to be married in 2024, 91% of planning was done online. This includes the use of wedding planning apps, video chatting with vendors, participating in online chats, and other mediums of social media.
“I think that’s killing my business,” she said. “A big part of what I do is refer vendors.”
Yet, both wedding planners can agree that social media can create misleading and unrealistic expectations for couples planning a wedding on a budget.
A survey by Brides magazine found that 74% of couples felt pressured to have an Instagram-worthy wedding. But, the wedding content showcased on social media apps are often high end and high budget, giving viewers a false sense of what the perfect wedding looks like.
For wedding planning companies, it is difficult to meet client’s demands when sticking to a more modest budget.
Lockery and Simmons have both experienced this struggle when helping their clients plan what might be considered an “Instagram worthy” wedding.
“It creates unrealistic expectations, and people don’t understand. That beautiful centerpiece and 10 tiered cake that you see on Pinterest is made to look like that because they want you to like it,” Lockery said. “It’s not even real. It’s foam with decorations on it.”
Simmons has noticed the unrealistic expectations social media creates as well, often having to advise clients what they see online might not be cost effective.
“Sometimes I have to be realistic with them and say, “Hey, this might not be in your budget.” It’s politely giving them the reality of the situation,” she said. “That’s probably what makes it the hardest. This image might be AI generated, so it’s not real life. How can we make it real life?”
In 2024, the average cost of a wedding is $33,000 – and this number continues to rise. Social media is partially responsible for this, as illusions of grandeur and the picture perfect wedding have driven couples to spend more on their receptions.
Lockery explained how trying to gently steer clients away from costly ideas at times hurts their perception of wedding planners and the services they are capable of providing.
“People come to somebody like me, or a florist, or a baker with these ideas. And they get sticker shocked. Then they say “I can’t afford that” or “I could do that myself,” Lockery said. “And it’s killing us, the professionals, and even the people who are doing it on the side.”
Where will wedding planning go from here?
In a post-pandemic industry, local wedding planners must continue to adapt to a new environment driven by social media and couples with a DIY mentality.
Simmons and her staff at RS Events Co. take on the challenges of the industry as they come, having learned that adaptability is key to keeping business running smoothly.
“I find the challenges are actually strengths, because I learn and grow from them every day. It’s about being adaptable and staying up with the trends because they’re ever changing,” she said.
Like the rest of the United States, local planners saw a boom in bookings in 2022 as weddings postponed during the pandemic finally occurred. However, for some small businesses like Pink Olive Events, 2024 has been a particularly slow year.
Lockery attributes this to the pandemic’s impact on people’s ability to date, start relationships, and get engaged due to lockdown restrictions.
“During COVID, obviously people weren’t out – they weren’t meeting each other. They weren’t at bars and they weren’t starting relationships. The average time for couples to meet, date, get engaged and plan a wedding is around three to four years,” she said. “We’re right at that four year mark, but four years ago, there was nobody meeting.”
Yet, Lockery has much hope that the industry will return to normal this upcoming year, as a new wave of couples begin planning their ceremonies.
To evolve with the rise of online wedding planning, Lockery has invested in marketing Pink Olive Events through social media. By keeping up with viral trends and finding ways to connect with younger Gen Z and Millennial audiences, she hopes to begin finding clients through social apps.
RS Events Co. also hopes to boost their social media presence in the near future, tapping into industry trends and a demand for online wedding planning tips.
Both planners are confident they will continue to book clients, despite social media’s growing hold on the industry. They believe in the value of a planner, a “bridal bestie” as Simmons described it.
“You could plan your own wedding, plan your own event, and it’ll still be great,” Simmons said. “But getting an event planner or a wedding planner is the optimal way to go.”