Experts predict ‘small’ trend in coming post-Covid wedding boom

Experts are predicting a new wedding boom is about to hit — but they won’t be like they were before Covid changed the world.

Love is in the air as South Australia plays host to a post-Covid weddings boom.

Wedding experts Easy Weddings are forecasting nuptials to nearly double this year alone, with 148,000 ceremonies – up from an estimated 85,000 in 2021, and just 79,000 in 2020.

Local suppliers are also reporting an increase in demand, with photographers, cake makers and venues bouncing back in trade.

Senior wedding planner at Easy Weddings, Darcy Allen, said “weddings are expected to peak over the next three years”.

“We estimate 148,000 will marry in 2022, followed by 143,000 in 2023, and 133,000 in 2024,” Ms Allen said.

“A lot of couples who got engaged between 2020-2021 held off their planning until they knew it was ‘safe’ again. Now that vaccine mandates have lifted, borders are reopening and capacity limits are no longer a consideration, we’re finding most couples are excited to either start their wedding planning journey or get back into planning mode.”

Autumn is expected to be this year’s most popular season as a result of weddings “playing catch-up post-lockdowns”, just surpassing the traditionally popular spring.

Lyndon Troost and Yasmine Lintvelt will be getting married at new venue, House on Haines. Picture: Keryn Stevens

The cost of the average wedding, meanwhile, is anticipated to increase from the current $32,228 “as key elements like catering and fresh flowers are becoming more expensive”, Ms Allen said. “This is due to a combination of factors like supply chain shortages and wedding industry businesses recouping losses of the extended shutdown periods.”

Sugar & Spice Cakes co-owner Amanda Piper said while the coming spring season was going to be “solid”, 2023 “is going to be a huge year for weddings”.

“With the uncertainty that was still happening earlier this year a lot of couples opted for the safer choice of booking in 2023,” she said.

“If you’re thinking of having an event in March 2023 book early – we are almost booked out and it’s nine months away.”

Photographer Travis Cornish, of Travis & Benny, said the company was seeing “more energy and confidence” in the SA market.

“People are more confident to book, and the question around ‘what happens if Covid affects our wedding’ arises much less. The rescheduling question is obsolete now,” he said.

“And people are not upset about having smaller weddings anymore; they’re happy to do something. It’s a case of, ‘we didn’t know what we had until we lost it’ – and we lost it for a few years.”

Lyndon Troost and Yasmine Lintvelt will be getting married at new venue, House on Haines. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Mr Cornish said less than 50 guests was considered a “smaller” wedding, however there was still a large percentage of the market who host up to 120 guests.

New wedding and events venue House on Haines in Tea Tree Gully is fast becoming a popular choice for couples. Operations manager Luke Donaldson said weekday weddings were becoming more common.

“Post-Covid, people want to celebrate, and the backlog of weddings and couples keen to marry, means people are choosing weekdays to secure the location of choice,” he said.

“We’ve also noticed people are preferring intimate gatherings of 100 people or less – at first it was in case restrictions changed, but now it’s because they’d prefer their nearest and dearest.”

Bride-to-be Yasmine Lintvelt, 30, of Hope Valley, is finally getting married to her 33-year-old beau, Lyndon Troost, on August 20 after the pair became engaged in February 2020.

“We never intended to have a long engagement, but with Lyndon’s family all in Victoria, my family in South Australia and Covid hitting Australia shortly after, it led to some postponement,” she said. “We procrastinated on locking anything in because it was all so volatile – it turned out that every date we had considered ended up having a lockdown either in Victoria or SA, so we were glad we never booked anything in.”

Ms Lintvelt said they weren’t sticking to a particular theme, but that they were encouraging guests to wear their “old outfit of the day”: “Something they have’t gotten to wear or only wore once and haven’t had another chance, especially with Covid!”