Central Coast wedding planners are booking weddings as far as 24 months in advance of set wedding dates.
According to the wedding website “The Knot,” 75 percent of couples who got engaged in 2021 have set a date for 2022.
Meanwhile, it’s already a big year for people who postponed their weddings because of the pandemic.
“Post-COVID has been an industry boom,” said Events by Krissy owner Krissy Arnal.
“Our biggest problem is we have so much business that we don’t know what to do with it,” said Kramer Events owner Melissa Kramer.
“Everyone who was maybe waiting to get married to see what happened with the pandemic all of a sudden all at once decided to get married,” said Amanda Holder Events owner Amanda Holder.
While COVID-19 played a massive role in wedding cancellations in 2020 and 2021, newly engaged couples are looking to tie the knot on the Central Coast at an incredibly high rate.
“In 2020, we were supposed to have done 43 weddings,” said Holder. “Most of those got postponed to last year. We ended up with 56 weddings last year because of the postponements and the new bookings.”
“There were some dark days for us and many of our fellow industry friends, but we’ve overcome it,” said Kramer. “The overflow from all of the postponements that happened in 2020, 2021 are taking up space for 2022 and 2023. I think we’ll even start to see some of that in 2024.”
“I booked two weddings yesterday, normally it’s one to two a month,” said Arnal. “My average is about five weddings a year. This year, I have about 14 to 15 weddings.”
With the rise in demand for weddings comes the rise in the number of weddings that wedding planners can manage.
“It’s definitely a harder situation taking on 10 extra weddings but being able to have assistance and other leads to contact makes it easier too,” said Arnal.
“Some weekends, we’re doing one, most weekends we’re doing two, and occasionally we’re doing three weddings in one weekend,” said Holder.
2023 dates are already starting to fill up.
“We are booking 18 to 24 months out at this point,” said Holder.
“It’s easier right now to find someone to marry than it is to find a vendor for your wedding,” said Arnal.
“Be flexible on your dates and be patient,” said Kramer.
“The Knot” estimates that a little over 2.5 million weddings are taking place across the country this year and they expect those numbers to rise over time into 2023.
