Free Wedding Planning Workshop
“How to Have a Dream Wedding Instead of a Nightmare!”
April 10, 2012 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm at “The Wedding Gallery”
1701 south Veteran’s Parkway in Bloomington (right next to Starbuck’s on Veteran’s and Morrissey)
Yes you read it correctly: Free, yes Free Workshop to help you plan the day of your dreams.
Simple Elegance with the help of the Doubletree and Eastland Suites will be presenting:
“How to Have a Dream Wedding Instead of a Nightmare”
The cost and planning of a wedding can be one of the most stressful times of your life. Cost of life is just skyrocketing and everyone wants a wedding that David Tutera did! Have you seen the new statistics from “The Knot”? Check out the average spending. Although Manhattan is the city with highest price ticket, Chicago is second on the list.
2011 Average Wedding Budget Breakdown
| Category | 2011 National Average Spend | 2010 National Average Spend | |
| Overall Wedding (excluding honeymoon) | $27,021 | $26,984 | |
| Wedding Venue (reception hall) | $12,116 | $12,124 | |
| Wedding/Event Planner | $1,753 | $1,683 | |
| Reception Band | $3,122 | $3,081 | |
| Reception DJ | $929 | $900 | |
| Wedding Photographer | $2,299 | $2,320 | |
| Florist/Décor | $1,894 | $1,988 | |
| Videographer | $1,486 | $1,463 | |
| Wedding Dress | $1,121 | $1,099 | |
| Wedding Cake | $535 | $540 | |
| Ceremony Site | $1,599 | $1,393 | |
| Ceremony Musicians | $536 | $503 | |
| Invitations | $331 | $351 | |
| Limousine | $669 | $667 | |
| Favors | $217 | $222 | |
| Rehearsal Dinner | $1,078 | $1,127 | |
| Engagement Ring | $5,130 | $5,392 |
OK, so we are Central Illinois and not Chicago but really you and I both know we look to trends from the “Windy City.”
Here are the New Trends compliments of “The Knot”
Top 10 2011 Wedding Trends
BIGGER BUDGETS. Brides are spending more on their weddings. For the first time since 2008, the average wedding budget has grown year over year, hitting $27,021. Fewer brides (29%) say the economy affected their wedding budget – a decrease from 31% in 2010 and 34% in 2009. Wedding standards also rose for the first time since 2009, as the average wedding spend per guest increased to $196, compared with $194 in 2009.
PLANNING BEGINS EARLIER. Some brides are even starting to plan their wedding before their guy pops the question. Brides are now allowing themselves more time to plan, with one in three (31%) beginning to plan more than 12 months ahead (up from 28% in 2010). Plus, 16% of brides now plan their wedding before getting engaged. In the last three months leading up to their wedding, brides spend an average of 11 hours a week working on wedding details. Nearly one in three hire or use a wedding planner, with more than half of those brides (51%) hiring them for day-of coordination.
3-DAY-LONG, LUXURY WEDDINGS. High-end weddings are far more traditional. Theluxury wedding segment (those spending an average of $100,000 on their wedding) had approximately 85,000 weddings in 2011 and represents a $9 billion industry. Luxury weddings are more formal/black-tie (46% vs. 15% of the non-luxury market) and larger (204 guests compared with 137 guests attending non-luxury weddings). Luxury weddings are also longer, with 74% of couples hosting three or more days of events. The look is also more traditional: Ivory/champagne and metallics are the most popular wedding color palettes among luxury brides.
LESS FORMAL STYLE. Casual weddings grow. Wedding style continues to move toward the more casual end of the spectrum. In 2011, 16% of brides said their wedding style was “casual,” compared with 14% in 2010 and 12% in 2009. While the “semi formal” category still reigns, with 65% of brides planning a wedding with that style in 2011, fewer brides are going for the “formal/black-tie” tradition, with only 16% describing their wedding that way in 2011, down from 18% in 2010 and 20% in 2009.
FALL WEDDINGS ARE MORE POPULAR. Unique wedding dates alter seasonal landscape. While summer will always be “wedding season,” 2011 saw a shift in seasonal popularity with only 37% of weddings taking place in months of June, July and August, down from 41% in 2010 and 2009. Partially owing to the popular wedding dates of 9/10/11 and 11/11/11, in 2011, fallgrew in popularity, with 36% of weddings taking place in September, October and November months, compared with just 30% in 2010 and 2009.
PURPLE REIGNS. Purple is the fastest-growing wedding color. Purple weddingscontinued to be extremely popular, with one out of four brides (25%) choosing the palette, up from 21% in 2010 and only 16% in 2009. Other popular wedding colors include blue (30%), green (24%) and pink (22%). On the other hand, brown weddings are on their way out, with only 11% choosing the color in 2011, down from 21% in 2008 (when brown was the “it” color).
WEDDINGS ARE MORE INTERACTIVE. New types of guest “entertainment” are on the rise. Eating and drinking isn’t enough anymore. Custom guest entertainment, such as photo booths and comedians, is on the rise, with 22% of brides incorporating additional guest entertainment into their wedding (vs. 15% in 2010 and 11% in 2009). In addition, interactive food stations, such as a sommelier with wine tastings, a sushi chef or a cheesemonger, continue to be popular, with 14% of brides including this option in their receptions (up from 13% in 2010).
COUPLES STILL LOVE CUPCAKES. Wedding cakes have much more competition.While a majority of brides (67%) still go for a traditional tiered wedding cake, other desserts are also served during the reception. Great dessert options include items like a groom’s cake (19%), candy (15%) and baked goods like pies, cookies and brownies (20%), and cupcakes, surprisingly, grew again in popularity from 13% in 2010 to 17% in 2011.
EVERY WEDDING HAS A WEBSITE. Couples increasingly communicate with guests online. The vast majority of couples now have personal wedding websites (69% of couples created one in 2011 vs. 65% in 2010 and 60% in 2009), and brides are increasingly using social media to share wedding details with guests (45% of couples did so in 2011 vs. 32% in 2009). Nearly one in six brides (15%) even kept in contact with their vendors via Facebook and/or Twitter.
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY. Wedding planning has gone mobile. Nearly three out of five brides use their smartphones for wedding planning. Brides who have smartphones are doing a lot on the go, from taking and sharing wedding-related pictures (58%) and looking up wedding vendor contact information (47%) to accessing wedding planning websites (33%) and managing theirwedding gift registry (32%).
So if you are overwhelmed and need a little free advice join us on Tuesday. Receive a complimentary “Wedding Planning Packet” and Preferred vendor list. Sip some wine and have a strawberry or two and RELAX.
HOPE TO SEE YOU!
Written by Margaret Moore Simple Elegance Events and Wedding Designs credit to “The Knot” for their fantastic statistics.