Economy gives couples the wedding bell blues

4/12/09
weddings
By Heather Haddon

Economy gives couples the wedding bell blues

Photo credit: Urbanite

Brenda Turnage, 22, of Spring City, PA tries on a dress at Kleinfeld, 110 W 20 St, for her wedding next April. Asked if she was cutting costs because of the recession, she replied, "I was already going to be on a budget." (Photo by Andrew Hinderaker)

By Heather Haddon

Here comes the bride, all dressed in — catering bills, cake fees, credit card charges.

The economy has cast a long shadow on the start of the wedding season, with nervous couples cutting guest lists, haggling for discounted gowns or postponing the date until fortunes brighten.

“They are more timid about everything,” said Mark Ingram, owner of a couture bridal store in Turtle Bay, which slashed prices by 80 percent last month to move stale merchandise. “It's no surprise. The economy is in the toilet.”

Corporate layoffs have especially fueled a downturn in the wedding industry in New York. JoAnn Gregoli, a Park Avenue bridal consultant, said clients are cutting the price of their lavish weddings in half from $200,000.

“The wedding industry is deeply affected by Wall Street,” Gregoli said. “I have three weddings that are literally on hold.”Spending on weddings nationally remained flat between 2007 and 2008, averaging nearly $24,000, according to a survey by the Knot, a media company tracking marriage. But New Yorkers cut their budgets by $3,000 last year.

Jeremy Berger, a Brooklyn commercial producer, spent months planning a $25,000 wedding for 150, but he and his fiancÃ© got nervous about paying a $300 cake-cutting fee and $50 for an hour of drinks per guest.

“We were cutting every single corner we could,” said Berger, 32. “But the bar situation was killing us.”

With heavy hearts, the couple decided to bag the big bash for a gathering of 50 at a favorite French restaurant. They slashed 80 percent off their budget by christening an iPod as the DJ, making their own boutonnieres and serving cupcakes instead of three-tiered confectionery.

The number of New York couples holding formal or black-tie weddings was down slightly last year, the Knot survey found. Nationally, couples also stayed engaged for months longer in 2008, the survey found.

“(Couples) are pushing their wedding dates back further and further,” Gregoli said.

As budgets tighten, New York couples have increasingly looked to renegotiate their contracts and hunt for bargains.

“Everybody is shopping, more so than ever before,” said B. Allan Kurtz, managing director of Gotham Hall in midtown. “I can bend, but I can't break.”

Since the slowdown, one high-end New Jersey bridal store went bankrupt, leaving a handful of city brides stranded without their dresses. And some New York City seamstresses and sales people have joined the unemployment lines.

“It's affecting us all,” said Angelika Moiodk, 32, a Greenpoint tailor who recently lost her work fitting mother-of-the-bride dresses.

Still, marriage isn't dead, and established wedding merchants are surviving by peddling package deals - like a “wedding in a box” offered by one Manhattan florist. Modest affairs imbued with meaning have gained vogue.

Berger said that downsizing his big day allowed him to make it more personal.

“I'd rather feed 10 people caviar than 100 people pizza,” he said.

Ideas to trim your wedding costs:

- Limit the hours of the open bar

- Opt for local, seasonal flowers, or share the arrangements with other couples getting married at the same venue

- Look for a smaller band, switch to a DJ, or ask friends to load up their iPods

- Bag the buffet for a set meal

- Book the photographer for an hourly rate and assemble your own album

(HEATHER HADDON)
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