The economic downturn has taken a toll on the wedding industry with fewer bookings, smaller guest lists and people ditching luxuries like flowers and hair stylists.
Summer is wedding season but celebrants, wedding planners, caterers and the like say business this year is tough.
Valley D’Vine in Hawke’s Bay won’t cater a reception until next year.
Greg Miller runs the restaurant on the Linden Estate winery in Esk Valley and said he’s never had a season quite like it.
“Normally, I would have done 10 weddings by now, from August on, but I haven’t done one yet. My first wedding’s not until January. I’ve lost like a whole year and a half of weddings.”
Greg Miller has never had a wedding season like this one. Photo / RNZ
After Cyclone Gabrielle ripped through the area in February last year, the restaurant was shut for seven months for repairs and to serve as a community hub.
Miller said business hadn’t picked up since and he feels people have forgotten Esk Valley is still there.
“Going into the pandemic I was doing about 25 weddings a year at the venue ... this year we’re probably only going to do 10, that’s after the cyclone. The most we ever did was 35 out there where we did three back to back in one weekend. There were those days where people would take any day of the week they could get.”
He said the high cost of living was also a key factor, with people cutting guest lists and opting for cheaper alternatives such as getting catering delivered.
Wellington makeup artist and hair stylist Veronica Zhou said wedding party bookings were also down this year.
“Before it was quite normal to have the bride and three or four bridesmaids and also like the bride’s mum or groom’s mum. So, it’s like five to six people per booking. But now it’s only mum and the bride.”
She said in summers past her team would be fully booked every Friday and Saturday doing hair and makeup for two or three weddings a day.
But this year she’s down to one wedding on Saturdays, and potential clients are shopping around for deals and making appointments at the last minute.
“I do have people like, ‘oh, I really don’t have budget', and ‘I only have like $500 will you be able to do that’? You know, I never had people ask like this way.”
Zhou said there were more makeup artists on the market now and with money tight for engaged couples, she feels she’s fighting for work.
Cultural shift
Pete Duncan is a celebrant and MC based in Rotorua who said he survived the economic downturn by diversifying his business online and cutting costs.
But the “Wedding Guy” said couples were being more savvy, with the average spend going from $20,000-$26,000 pre-Covid to $12,000-$24,000.
“It means for couples that they’re able to go, so we don’t necessarily have to follow a status quo of 80 or more guests, we can actually have 50 or less guests and does that provide us opportunity to save towards our first home deposit or look at a more spectacular honeymoon.”
He said Covid, which forced weddings to be smaller, showed couples they could be more resourceful.
Christchurch wedding planner Emma Newman said more couples were cutting costs and opting for bespoke alternatives to the traditional white wedding.
“Are they going to a specific vineyard or venue or wherever that they have to spend money and wine and the food or can we do something rather bespoke and curated at home. People may be doing their own flowers.
“There’s always going to be that 1% of the wedding market that is still these large weddings, but I think people are looking at doing things differently. Maybe a smaller ceremony followed by a lovely cocktail party or a beautiful dinner with high-end, quality food but with only 30 people.”
She said it was a cultural shift the industry would adapt to, having dealt with challenges like natural disasters and the global financial crisis before.
