Studying up to date information in the form of wedding data and statistics will help you make the right business decisions. This year's report includes key facts from the actual user data from 1000s of couples using Guides for Brides online to plan their weddings.
The most accurate and relevant data
There is plenty of conflicting data on weddings, often as a result of data reports being used as marketing tools rather than to give businesses totally unbiased facts.
Data collected through surveys will reflect opinions of those with the time and inclination to complete surveys. Their answers can be influenced by positioning a question in a particular way, or by the time of day or time of year they receive the survey.
Meanwhile, data collected through online wedding planning platforms rather than surveys will give a more comprehensive and unbiased data set than a survey. It is the reason that we know our clients can trust our data.
We also look to the ONS (Office for National Statistics) reports for key figures on the number of weddings formally recorded in the UK, however their reports are always a few years behind, which isn't helpful for businesses wanting to spot trends.
So... what can we learn from the 2022 data?
Usually we compare YoY (year on year) data to see trends, however the data from 2020 and 2021 was a-typical as a result of covid. So, when looking at data for 2022 weddings we have used 2019 as a comparison where we felt it would be more relevant.
Despite venues incentivising couples to marry midweek, we can see that demand for Saturdays was even higher than in 2019.
It's not just peak days that couples were choosing; they was also an increase in demand for summer weddings.
As there was an estimated 15-20% more weddings in 2022 as we caught up from the covid backlog, for the industry to have the capacity for an increased number of summer Saturday bookings in an already busy year, it suggests that there is far greater supply of venues than there is demand.
Venues will need to be competitive in order to fill their order books.
The proportion of couples looking for late availability increased 4-fold. Most venues offered discounted rates to fill late spaces, however this may not have been necessary as cost savings did not seem to be the reason for couples to leave booking until later.
Planning time dropped significantly, with a third of couples spending less than 6 months actively planning their wedding and booking their venue and suppliers.
This change in typical planning time is the most significant and relevant change, and there could be a number of reasons:
- Are couples nervous about committing to a date in case there is another lockdown?
- Are couples wanting more financial certainty before they start to book?
- Are couples concerned about paying deposits too early? Do they no longer trust insurers to cover their claims?
- Are venues and suppliers offering so many late booking discounts that it is driving the market down?
- Are we seeing skewed results because couples wanting to search by date tend to use Guides for Brides over other platforms?
Make the most of the data by working out what this means for your business and how to use it to your advantage. If you aren't using the late availability feature on your advert, get in touch and we'll set it up for you now!