Couples scale back wedding plans in rough economy
By JULIET FLETCHER
Staff Writer, 609-272-7251
Published: Monday, December 01, 2008
As Matt Shapiro scanned the glittering jewelry cabinets at Whitehall Jewelers on Black Friday, he was on familiar turf.A year ago to the day, he had whisked his girlfriend, Allison Ryan, to a secluded shore spot, hiding in his pocket an engagement ring from the very same jeweler.But although she said yes that day, the pair also agreed to a longer-than-planned engagement and a smaller-than-expected wedding.On Friday, a year after the proposal but still nearly a year from their September ceremony, they got up at 5 a.m. to brave the Hamilton Mall bargain-hunters and browse for wedding bands."Matt's a real estate agent - which explains why we had a long engagement," Ryan said later that day from her home in Beach Haven. With economic conditions worsening, Ryan and Shapiro, both 25, have followed many other couples in demanding more for their wedding-planning money and by putting off their decisions.
December traditionally brings a glut of holiday or New Year's Eve marriage proposals, which help add up to an annual $1.9 billion statewide industry, according to figures from The Wedding Report, a company that provides research on the wedding market. New Jersey has become a hub for wedding-dress outlets and hotel venues, and brides here spent a hefty chunk more on their weddings last year than others nationwide, favoring $37,000 events over the average $28,800. But this coming year, New Jersey vendors of all sorts say they expect to see that margin narrow and are waiting to see whether they receive the flurry of calls that usually follow New Year's."We're obviously waiting to see what happens in the spring," said Jorge Rodriguez, who owns and manages the Paper Waiter restaurant and venue in Millville, Cumberland County. Weddings there can host hundreds of people, but Rodriguez has seen a decisive shift in the past year away from the larger-scale events."I guess there's maybe a percentage who are postponing getting married altogether," he said. "But we've seen about the same number of weddings - just they're smaller. Where it used to be 200 guests here, it might now be 75 to 100."While some services such as a DJ or photographer cost a flat rate, most wedding-reception meals are budgeted for by headcount, meaning a smaller group of guests may translate to lower profits for the organizers.Rodriguez says his venue has attracted business by offering to host not only the reception dinner but the ceremony itself. "I'd say 60, 70 percent of all the weddings we do have everything happening here," he said Wednesday.Ryan, who has booked a ceremony and reception at the Sea Oaks Country Club near her Beach Haven home, agrees. "We put off the wedding date until we could find something that was all-inclusive," he said. "We chose our place because they include everything - the bar, the linens." She and Shapiro also halved their guest list.Local jewelers said they were reluctant to guess how many engagement rings they would sell this season. Whitehall Jewelers, where the couple browsed, is going out of business, and offered deep discounts on all of its rings, but its managers at the Hamilton Mall branch would not comment on sales.But many in the other industries propped up by local wedding customers said what truly mattered was how soon the couples planned to spend their wedding dollars - and where."I think many are having longer engagements," said Tia Curran, who staffs the gift registry at Macy's in Mays Landing. "But so many are then choosing destination weddings, where they go away on vacation and everything's included." That money, she pointed out, isn't spent locally.On the upside, Curran said, guests do buy wedding gifts closer to home. "I know some people are trying to spare their guests' feelings by not requesting large gifts," Curran said. But she added that, in her job, she encourages those cash-conscious couples to register those larger items anyway. "After all," she said, "it is a wish list."E-mail Juliet Fletcher:JFletcher@pressofac.com
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