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Wedding Boom Predicted for Next 22 Years

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Whether you have an existing wedding related business or have an interest in selling or writing about a new niche market, demographic predictions* related to the wedding industry point to strong potential growth.

Couples spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year getting married … and that number is about to get bigger.

Regardless of your current business, you may be able to position products or services for the predicted wedding boom.

U.S. Average Wedding Cost By Year 1945 - 2009/Q3
U.S. Average Wedding Cost By Year 1945 – 2009/Q3 ~ Graph provided by TheWeddingReport.com

At least 3.8 million children have been born each year since 1987 in the U.S. Because the average U.S. woman marries at 25 and these women start turning 23 in 2010, they will start planning their weddings soon.

Graph of U.S. Weddings by Year 1945-2008 in Millions - Attribution WeddingReport.com
Graph of U.S. Weddings by Year 1945-2008 in Millions – Attribution TheWeddingReport.com

Weddings mean huge opportunities for wedding clothing, accessories, catering, wedding planners, flower shops, honeymoon planners, travel and gifts. There is also a visible increase in sales related to gay weddings as more states legalize same sex marriages.

A huge wedding boom will start soon and last for at least 22 years.

The good news is there is much available wedding market research and many strong existing online markets you can use to greatly increase your visibility now to be positioned during this wedding boom.

Estimated Median Age at First Marriage - Click image for full Bridal News Network Wedding Trend Report (PDF)
Estimated Median Age at First Marriage – Click image for full Bridal News Network Wedding Trend Report (PDF)

The bad news – which is actually good for some including destination weddings and wedding DJs – is the economy is changing spending patterns so to maximize your results you will want to stay ahead of these wedding trends.

Wedding planners are consistently reporting an increase in the number of weddings but a decrease in the amount spent and more interest in bargain shopping, requests for discounts, and brides trying to save using do it yourself or having friends take on some responsibilities.

According to The Wedding Report, wedding spending is estimated to be down about 6-8% across the board in 2009, then grow by about 6% by 2014. Number of weddings is estimated to grow by 1.2% in 2009 and 5% by 2014. These numbers will vary by market. [I believe they mean geographic area.]

UNIQUE GIFT IDEA for the WEDDING COUPLE: Oil Burning Stone Candles

The fastest way to grow wedding related business is through identifying and using some of the very strong wedding niche sites that already have the lion’s share of the traffic.

Top Wedding Sites by Compete Traffic - TheKnot, WeddingWire, MyWedding and Wedding Bee - click to enlarge
Top Wedding Sites by Compete Traffic – TheKnot, WeddingWire, MyWedding and Wedding Bee – click to enlarge

According to traffic numbers from Compete, the top Wedding sites by traffic are TheKnot, WeddingWire, MyWedding, WeddingBee (shown above) and  ProjectWedding, OneWed, WeddingMapper and 1WeddingSource (below).

Other Top Wedding Sites
Compete Traffic Comparison for Wedding Sites ProjectWedding, OneWed, WeddingMapper, 1WeddingSource and WeddingIMC – Click to enlarge

Although the graphs above reveal wedding niche sites with more current traffic, of these wedding sites the one we feel is most promising is OneWed. They have an excellent reputation and are very creative and active in Social Media.

Advertisers will find them very pro-active in following up and collaborating and their knowledge of the wedding industry is exceptional.

Did you know that January is the top month for wedding planning because so many get engaged over the holidays?

OneWed is the force behind Matrimony Monday, Kicking Off the Prime Wedding Planning Season on the Second Annual Matrimony Monday. Their Press release includes this quote according to TheWeddingReport.com:

“Approximately 35-40 percent (550,000-650,000) of engagements in the US take place during the winter holiday season between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day*. Thanks to the romantic nature of the holiday season, the majority of proposals take place between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, making the first Monday back at work the peak time to start searching online for planning ideas and inspiration.”

Now is the time to get moving in your wedding related promotions. We will be writing much more about OneWed and why we will be working with them and also about Bridaluxe, an exceptional wedding affiliate program that allows any blogger to add a fully stocked Wedding Store with one line of code.

Read how much easier Bridaluxe is for affiliates in Derek Semmler’s excellent review of the Bridaluxe wedding affiliate program.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH:

[NOTE: *Some demographic predictions data used in this post came from http://www.ideablob.com/posts/366 which is no longer available due to the bankruptcy of their parent company.]

WEDDING AFFILIATE PROGRAM RECOMMENDATIONS:

AFFILIATE MARKETING for AFFILIATES:

AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR MERCHANTS:

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap
Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.
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Comments

  4. Thanks for the wedding information data provided by you to the people to known the average number of wedding couple are been together

    Reply

  5. Wedding is a huge market; more so in India. The arrangements here are spread over many days, and thousands of guests are involved.
    Lucrative

    Reply

  6. It’s nice to see that we will be having more weddings in the future and that people are still into getting married in spite of all the economic problems today.

    Reply

  9. Really interesting to see all the numbers you put together. We have definitely seen a trend with our couples getting older before marriage in the last ten years. Our average client is 3o. 10 years ago they were mid twenties. Encouraging to see the huge numbers of weddings coming in the future.
    Eric would love you to read ..Best Chicago Wedding VenuesMy Profile

    Reply

  10. Very nice infographics. As there are more choices on how your wedding would be compared ten years ago; wedding expenses today would really go high.

    Reply

  12. Great stats on wedding, this is a good news for people who are related to wedding industry or who are thinking to join it…….boom will raise the competition and wedding costs.

    Reply

  13. I hope there are more weddings. I think its great. My only question is this… is there a lower percentage of couples getting married these days? More couples are satisfied without. I loved this info and I hope all these young men and women get married.
    tom would love you to read ..Mens WearhouseMy Profile

    Reply

  14. I am going into the wedding industry. This information has been very encouraging. Thank you for the statistics. -Ryan

    Reply

  17. Well well well,so peeps have finally decided to tie the knots.You are right wedding expenses ,it is become expensive with every passing day.I read somewhere that normal wedding cost you around $30000 and to meet these expenses one take loans ,use credit cards ,etc etc and an average marriage lasts for only 11 years.So is it wise to spend that much and then repay the debt your whole life .

    Reply

  18. It means we don’t need to worry about our businesses (joke).Jokes apart ,the reason for this change would be loneliness or probably people need reassurance of being with each other by taking the boyfriend/girlfriend relationship to the next level or something else ,,,,,,,

    Reply

  19. You told all about the wedding, wedding reports today and before and marriage research etc. I got that but its somewhat difficult to understand the graphs. Please make it more clear and brief.

    Reply

  20. Holy heck, $30,000+ on a wedding?? I’ve never been married yet but I SURE SURE hope it isn’t anywhere near that amount. That almost drives me crazy just thinking about it. 30k on a one day event.

    But anyway, I have a website you could say is related to weddings. So I hope these graphs and growth will go accordingly.

    Reply

  21. As an old wholesale florist that has been out of the business for a while I have been reluctant to build any wedding sites after watching my old customers struggle to stay in business.

    I have been building product based sites and maybe it is time to build some wedding sites. Thank you for the detailed information.

    John

    Reply

    • Hi John,

      With the economy declining while demographically there is likely to be more demand for weddings how much is spent is likely to be reduced. No business I can think of right off will be immune from what is happening. Only those who manage to expand their reach to make up for the declining incomes of their existing customer base may survive.

      I would be interested in connecting with you regarding your work and what businesses need. We have some test sites running and are pooling our collective knowledge and using our combined reach and links from other sites to improve search engine positions.

      You can read about what we’re doing in our private private blog collaboration.
      growmap would love you to read ..Why the Economy is In Decline and What We Can Do to Improve ItMy Profile

      Reply

  22. This is a great article about Weddings. I may get married in about two years. I have bookmarked the site so that I can keep track of your progress in the future. Thanks and keep up the great work.

    Reply

  23. This is music to my ears.This is really a great post! Thanks for sharing. A blog really owes its success to its loyal readers and faithful followers.

    Reply

  28. hay thanks for the post, US girls have some tradition now to marry before 25 years, I think its good for the coming generations. Good markets survey.

    Reply

  29. Sadly, my first thought was that weddings are increasing because people are getting divorced and remarried, so maybe it’s a combination of first time marriages as well as remarriages? I really would expect to see a decline in marriages, honestly.
    .-= Lisa@Custom Wedding Favors´s last blog ..Personalized Wedding Magnets =-.

    Reply

  30. hey thanks admin for this wonderful suggestions i appreciate that you share useful post with your readers.great work.keep it up.

    Reply

  32. Hello, I have browsed most of your posts. This post is probably where I got the most useful information for my research. Thanks for posting, maybe we can see more on this. Are you aware of any other websites on this subject

    Reply

  33. everything is presented very nicely!
    I like to see the wedding budgets are coming up hehehe! as a Wedding Photographer I see different wedding occasion that really struck me to its beauty.

    thanks for the stats! 🙂

    Reply

    • Hello Karen,

      Be sure to read the information in the trends link in this post. It is specific to how couples are cutting back on using professional photographers. You will want to be proactive at addressing that trend.

      It is important to ensure you explain the risks of making friends and family responsible for preserving the wedding and the skills photographers use in posing people that can make a HUGE difference in the quality of the photos.

      Few non-photographers would know that how the feet are turned, where each person is placed, and what the subjects do with their hands all greatly impact the attractiveness of the photos.

      If I had a photography blog I would compare real photographs side-by-side and point out these differences so that potential clients could clearly see the importance of experience and specialized skills.

      Few would want to invest the time to truly learn it themselves and the more you share the more others will appreciate the complexity of what you do.

      Every business including wedding photographers needs to maximize their visibility online starting with getting their free listings in major Local Search Directories like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Bing, SuperPages and 72+ others.

      How to do that and why it is important is explained in the post I’ll feature in CommentLuv in this reply.
      .-= Gail @ Support Small Businesses´s last blog ..Free Business Listings in Local Search Directories =-.

      Reply

  34. Thanks for 0the posting, Yes! the Wedding markets is getting high day by day. Its a very fantastic market survey on Wedding, its true that the US girls are getting married before 24 to 25. good target.

    Reply

    • Wise bloggers who create niche sites will be targeting this niche. Those who collaborate with each other will benefit the most. Anyone who is interested in how best to do that can contact me using the information in the contact tab.
      .-= Gail @KeywordLuv´s last blog ..Why Marketing is NOT Evil =-.

      Reply

  35. I was looking for crucial information on this subject. The information was important as I am about to launch my own portal. Thanks for providing a missing link in my business.

    Reply

  36. Couples will always get married but the money spent on the wedding may be adjusted. I hope the newly weds don’t put so much into the wedding that they start off in the hole.
    I notice that you make a thoughtful reply to each comment. How do you do that? You have a great site. Thanks

    Reply

    • Hello Chuck,

      I, too, hope that couples spend more time planning their life together than their wedding and focus on what is truly important.

      I do my best to answer all comments although that gets more challenging as my blogs become more popular. One blog you definitely should visit is our Golf Blog because you and it are in the same niche.

      All of our blogs including NoBogies are part of the DoFollow CommentLuv KeywordLuv community.
      .-= Gail @ Support Small Businesses´s last blog ..Why Marketing is NOT Evil =-.

      Reply

  37. I think that this is the motivation of the successful of my website.
    I have a website about my activities of wedding in Italy and this year i have more customers then last years. I think that the wedding planner are the best practives for make a marriage.

    Reply

    • Welcome and congratulations on the success of your business. Destination weddings are a hot new trend (as those who check the trends link I shared in this post already know) and a Web site that describes the benefits a business offers is a great way to pre-sell potential clients before they ever contact you.

      Combining a wedding with a honeymoon destination would be a fun way to get married for those who have few guests to invite (or those whose family and friends are able to travel abroad).
      .-= growmap´s last blog ..Recommended Wedding Affiliate Program: Bridaluxe =-.

      Reply

  38. yes i completely agree with the fact that wedding business is going to be on the top since its like competition now a days means wedding expenditure is become status symbol for people.

    Reply

  39. I also think it is a shame that people are bargain hunting for wedding photographers. The photographs are a lasting reminder of the day and while a good photographer can make you look fantastic a mediocre photographer will, well make you look mediocre.

    People do seem to be realising that there is more to photography than just the kit, and brides do seem to be getting a bit more savy about the photographers.
    If a deal seems too good to be true it often is. Please check your wedding photographer, see previous work, try to see a whole wedding shoot, not just hand-picked best shots and make sure the photos are of real couples and not models.
    .-= fiona@A Matter of Wedding Photography Edinburgh´s last blog ..Five Tips to a Successful Scottish Wedding Ceilidh =-.

    Reply

    • Hi Fiona,

      Thank you so much for adding your thoughts on this post. I totally agree that a talented, experienced photographer can make all the difference in whether photographs are flattering to the subjects or not.

      Those are details that only people who have studied photography (or know someone who has) are likely to know and why I believe wise photography studios must do more to convey this type of information. Web sites are the perfect vehicle for doing just that for a business.
      .-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Recommended Wedding Affiliate Program: Bridaluxe =-.

      Reply

  40. Wow, looks like the median age for first marriages is probably pushing 30 years old now, great info.
    .-= Lisa@bridesmaid speeches´s last blog ..Structure for Bridesmaid Speeches =-.

    Reply

  41. Thanks again for another great and super informative post. I will definitely be sharing with my wedding photog friends.

    I am a little discouraged about the trend to bargain shop for wedding photographers. Brides and grooms spend so much on their wedding (monetarily & emotionally), yet they hey forget that the one person that can capture it all is the photographer. They end up going the less expensive route and hire someone that is mediocre at best and end up with sub par photos. This is a sad point because so much is invested and so little is returned. I hope that this trend starts to change as well.

    Thank you again and Rock on!

    Reply

    • Welcome Otto and thank you. Photographers need to be proactive and flexible to overcome the trend to use not only less expensive or inexperienced photographers but also to rely on friends or family carrying cheap digital cameras or even cell phones.

      Wedding photography is not just about having the technical means to snap a photo. I wonder how many realize it isn’t just equipment differences that matter. Taking great photos is as much an art as painting. Where and how people are posed makes a HUGE difference in the results.

      I suspect many brides and grooms don’t realize the little things that matter so much in a photograph such as where people are looking, what they are doing with their hands and how their legs and feet are positioned. It is up to photographers to offer this information.

      You CAN overcome this trend. Be proactive about explaining what you do and know. Be creative with pricing and options. Experiment with upgrades like albums. Share research on related subjects. Do a survey of brides and grooms asking how many actually did something with the photos that are on disk versus those they have framed and enjoy every day.

      I am happy to offer free suggestions to any business on ideas like the above, on what is involved in having a successful blog and how to effectively use Social Networking.
      .-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Better Twitter Retweets From Favorite Twitter Apps =-.

      Reply

  42. Hi
    I just started to promote some bridal shoe merchants ,what is the most popular wedding shos brand in USA?
    .-= Marc´s last blog ..Stuart Weitzman Oboe Bridal Shoes =-.

    Reply

  43. Thanks for sharing this. I would glad to get a wedding related niche site rite now 🙂
    .-= Aaron@Instant Background Check´s last blog ..Using Background Checks to Ensure People’s Viability =-.

    Reply

  44. Its amazing to me how much people pay for their wedding. After all it is just one day. But looking at the reports it looks like an industry I might want to get into.

    Reply

  45. Ha, that is fascinating, I suppose things like gay marriage being legalized in more and more states would be part of the wedding rate increasing. So, the wedding business huh? Interesting, that is something to consider because yes there are so many different things couples will spend on when getting married. Thanks for relating to us the suspected wedding boom! 🙂

    Reply

  46. Thank you so much for the kind words! We here at OneWed are deeply dedicated to the business success of our wedding vendors and helping our engaged couples find all the information and tools they need to plan a wonderful wedding and life together!

    Cheers!
    The OneWed Team

    Reply

  47. Every women want some spark in their life, wedding has been one of those special moments that we’re waiting for. The percentage of women wants to get married are more than men.

    I admire your intelligence of gathering this information and sharing it to us. You’ve really do great with your post. I definitely like it!

    Reply

  48. Wow, aside from the obvious influx of age demographics I am kind of surprised that they still predict a huge growth in weddings because of so many people bypassing marriage and just living together.

    But then again for so many women having that fairytale wedding is such a milestone in life.

    Def interesting numbers!

    PS. Yeah for Keyword Luv and CommentLuv – I use both of them on my site and I’ve “met” some really cool bloggers that way!
    .-= Michelle @ Your Virtual Assistant´s last blog ..4 Reasons: Twitter’s new ReTweet Feature SUCKS! =-.

    Reply

  50. This is a very surprising stat as my assumption would have been that women are waiting later to get married and that marriages are on the decrease. There are no doubt great opportunities in this arena. Thanks for the heads up!!!
    .-= Jim@Top List´s last blog ..Top 10 Gifts For Teens =-.

    Reply

    • Hi Jim,

      Actually you are correct that women are waiting longer to get married and these demographics reflect that. Marriages have been less abundant because of that but those brides who were waiting are older now and moving forward with wedding plans.

      Women who desire children usually prefer to be married by the time they are thirty because those who wait too long can end up having far more challenges conceiving than expected.
      .-= GrowMap´s last blog ..Tools Wanted for Power Bloggers, Social Networkers =-.

      Reply

  51. well i think this is really good post and informative too and itts really cool taht peoples find sense in moving into wedding business. good content keep it up
    .-= sarika@vancouver wedding photographer´s last blog ..Spilled Milk & Sweet Showit. =-.

    Reply

  52. it’s good news to hear that people are becoming interested in wedding business. Hopefully better times are ahead. I guess the prices and features of the wedding doesn’t hurt either. Good Luck

    Reply

  53. Because many families do not live close together, planning a wedding has become something that is done online. Having one site to work with, especially one that provides vendors by location and the ability to compare costs is very helpful. I just experienced this when my daughter who lives in Kansas was married there too. While my husband and I live in Florida. We did most of our planning online.
    .-= ConnieFoggles´s last blog ..New Years Eve #WispKiss =-.

    Reply

    • Hi Connie,

      Isn’t that the truth! That is why I took the time to check out the best known all-in-one wedding sites. I already knew @OneWed from Twitter and was pleased when I found that while they are not the largest the are the largest with a great reputation.

      I’d love to hear from any brides to be who are using OneWed and am working on another post about what I know about them. These types of sites often have so many features that they are not immediately obvious.
      .-= GrowMap´s last blog ..Donation Coder Annual New Apps for the New Year NANY 2010 Annual Challenge =-.

      Reply

  54. Hmm… it is time for me to start a wedding niche blog LOL. Honestly, it isn’t a bad time to start a wedding website 🙂

    Reply

    • Hi Kai Lo,

      Now is the perfect time. The peak time for wedding planning related searches is January with the highest sales coming in the second and third quarters of each year.

      When you build your wedding site don’t forget to check out our Gift Affiliate Program and the Bridaluxe Wedding Affiliate Program that makes it really easy to add a dynamically updated Wedding Store to any site by pasting one line of code.

      Be sure to read the post I’ve featured in CommentLuv in this reply. It is the most important thing every site owner can do to greatly increase their traffic and sales.
      .-= GrowMap´s last blog ..Are You Playing Hide and Seek With Your Market? =-.

      Reply

  55. It appears that the cost of weddings went down for a while and now is going disappointing up, given the economic situation and all. Does this cost includes honeymooning in the Caribbean, Hawaii or some destination resort?
    .-= ppo´s last blog ..PPO Insurance and Plans and deductibles =-.

    Reply

    • Hi ppo,

      The people getting married have great control over how much they choose to spend on their wedding. The trends report I linked in this post shows where some brides and grooms have decided to cut back and where they are still spending strong.

      Anyone in the wedding niche will find it very enlightening. I encourage businesses to use that feedback to strengthen their own offerings. I specifically mentioned photographers and videographers as being at risk of losing business and also because that is one area that would really hurt a married couple (not having quality photos of their wedding).

      I did also mention that what are being called Destination Weddings are growing which includes Hawaii, the Caribbean, other vacation resort areas and places like Las Vegas and Reno.

      How much to spend on a wedding is a matter of personal choice. You can spend less than $1000 or over $50,000 – it all depends on what you feel is essential and what you can do without.
      .-= GrowMap´s last blog ..Are You Playing Hide and Seek With Your Market? =-.

      Reply

  56. Hi JR,

    Glad to be of service. Don’t miss the references to the gift affiliate program we manage and the Bridaluxe wedding affiliate program.

    We’ll be writing about Bridaluxe soon as their niche affiliate program has some major advantages including 365 day cookies, automatically accepting affiliates into all of their merchants, and my favorite: adding one piece of code that generates an entire wedding store that is automatically updated with daily features.
    .-= GrowMap´s last blog ..Tools Wanted for Power Bloggers, Social Networkers =-.

    Reply

  57. This is perfect timing as I was considering a new wedding site, thanks!
    .-= JR @ Internet Marketing´s last blog ..Reply in Comments Fixed and Best Reply to Comments – Threaded Comment Plugins =-.

    Reply

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