# Are less people getting married this year? (U.S.)



## karamat (Mar 5, 2011)

I have been doing wedding photography for a few years and have used the same advertising tools.  But this year I am getting about half the inquiries.  In fact the majority of my business this season is from referrals. 

Is this happening to anyone else?  Are less people getting married?


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## Robin Usagani (Mar 5, 2011)

fewer


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## usayit (Mar 5, 2011)

Weddings are expensive and people are living without them rather then go into unnessessary debt.  

There was a recent news report speaking to it.


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## PhotoWrangler (Mar 5, 2011)

We haven't had any MORE weddings booked than normal... but we have booked our largest package WAY more than we did last year. It seems those that are booking are spending more than they were last year or year before.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Mar 5, 2011)

Yet another reason to legalize gay marriage...think of the money to be made from all the dinks!


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## PhotoWrangler (Mar 5, 2011)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> Yet another reason to legalize gay marriage...think of the money to be made from all the dinks!





Amen to that! Expendable income is a lovely thing...


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## vicanderson (Mar 6, 2011)

Our business directly effect the earning of people.

People will do marriages as earlier but may be they are going to spent less on these expenses.


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## LarissaPhotography (Mar 16, 2011)

We've been seeing a lot of couples getting married later in life.  It's definitely more common to hold off for a while now.


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## e.rose (Mar 16, 2011)

It may not be the number of weddings happening... but the fact that brides are becoming more "budget conscious".  I got married last year and I was a "budget bride".  Granted, we actually *did* spend on our photos (cutting back on other things I deemed less important, like decorations, real flowers, open bar [gasp!]), but I could link you to 15 girls' Facebook pages that got married last year, who were budget brides and didn't.  They hired friends, family, or "pros" with shoddy skills but with pricing accessible to the budget brides.

Or maybe people *are* waiting.  Who knows.


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## imagemaker46 (Mar 16, 2011)

From a friend of mine that has seen his weddings drop off by 50% this year. He lives and owns a studio in a smaller city outside Toronto.  "When I go out to shoot the weddings I am tripping over all these new photographers shooting weddings, the majority have one camera and one lens"  You can ask if fewer people are getting married but the reality is more amateurs have stepped in to shoot weddings, it is an easy way to pick up good money  without having to buy more than one camera.  It doesn't mean the pictures will be any good, what it does mean  is that people are settling for less.


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## Bitter Jeweler (Mar 16, 2011)

Cool! We can argue about that "issue" here too!


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## Robin Usagani (Mar 16, 2011)

You need to stop blaming it 100% on the amateurs. I would blame most of it to the clients for not doing their research and not putting photography as #1 priority. You get what you pay for (not 100% true all the time though).



imagemaker46 said:


> From a friend of mine that has seen his weddings drop off by 50% this year. He lives and owns a studio in a smaller city outside Toronto. "When I go out to shoot the weddings I am tripping over all these new photographers shooting weddings, the majority have one camera and one lens" You can ask if fewer people are getting married but the reality is more amateurs have stepped in to shoot weddings, it is an easy way to pick up good money without having to buy more than one camera. It doesn't mean the pictures will be any good, what it does mean is that people are settling for less.


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## e.rose (Mar 16, 2011)

imagemaker46 said:


> You can ask if fewer people are getting married but the reality is more amateurs have stepped in to shoot weddings, it is an easy way to pick up good money  without having to buy more than one camera.  It doesn't mean the pictures will be any good, what it does mean  is that people are settling for less.


 
Exactly what I was getting at.

Like I said, I know a *lot* of girls that got married last year (real friends, and the fact that I used to be on a married life forum) and upon seeing the photos that they uploaded as their "professional photos", I would have assumed were candid snaps taken by guests if not for the fact that they labeled them "pro pics!".

People are cutting costs all over the place as far as weddings are concerned, and unfortunately, photography is one of them.  More girls are becoming satisfied with the sheer fact that the day was recorded, more than concerned with the *quality* in which it was recorded.


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## e.rose (Mar 16, 2011)

Schwettylens said:


> You need to stop blaming it 100% to amateurs. I would blame most of it to the clients for not doing their research and not putting photography as #1 priority.  You get what you pay for (not 100% true all the time though).


 
I don't even think it's that.  They just don't care enough about the photos... so when they find a cheap one where the images are at least identifiable... they hire that photographer.


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## e.rose (Mar 16, 2011)

And I mean... I'm coming from the consumer side of the camera, because obviously, I'm not a wedding photographer, but like I said, I just got married last year... so buzz I heard (and am still hearing) is fairly recent.  And not only are girls skimping on the photography part of the budget, they STILL expect to have 3,000,000 images on a CD for them within the 2 weeks following the event.


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## imagemaker46 (Mar 16, 2011)

Ok first of all I don't do weddings, I thought I made it clear in the first line, that a friend of mine that shoots weddings told me.  This statement didn't come from me, I passed it along from another professional photographer.  But I will say one thing, has the world suddenly been flooded with full time working professional wedding photographers, or have more amateurs and weekend photographers just entered the field of weddings? 

e.rose you are correct


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## Nubbs (Mar 16, 2011)

I just got married last year. If I had to do it again I wouldn't.  The amount of money that my wife and I spent on our wedding could have been used in so many better ways. I think people are starting to realize that you don't need a fancy wedding or even a wedding at all to live happily ever after. If my wife and I had to do it again we would have done it in Vegas the way we wanted to in the first place.With that said our wedding day was the best party I had ever been a part of and our friends talk about it to this day and rank other weddings by it. If  people our cutting back on what they spend on weddings than they are going to cut back on everything including the Photos.  You cant expect a bride to cut her dress budget in half to save money and not cut the photo budget also.


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## e.rose (Mar 16, 2011)

Nubbs said:


> *I just got married last year. If I had to do it again I wouldn't.  The amount of money that my wife and I spent on our wedding could have been used in so many better ways.* I think people are starting to realize that you don't need a fancy wedding or even a wedding at all to live happily ever after. If my wife and I had to do it again we would have done it in Vegas the way we wanted to in the first place.*With that said our wedding day was the best party I had ever been a part of* and our friends talk about it to this day and rank other weddings by it. If  people our cutting back on what they spend on weddings than they are going to cut back on everything including the Photos.  You cant expect a bride to cut her dress budget in half to save money and not cut the photo budget also.



That's exactly how I feel, haha.

We already had a budget of only $5,000... most of that going to the photographer and venue (and our venue was cheap.  )... my dress was $79 on e-bay, but I was blessed because it was the "dream dress" I had my eye set on for 2 years and I happened to find it, brand new, tags still attached, right size, right color on ebay.  Crazy, huh?

And even being able to get married on a $5k budget *and* paying for all of it in cash, therefore having no debt... I STILL wish we would have eloped... XD


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## ghache (Mar 16, 2011)

imagemaker46 said:


> From a friend of mine that has seen his weddings drop off by 50% this year. He lives and owns a studio in a smaller city outside Toronto. "When I go out to shoot the weddings I am tripping over all these new photographers shooting weddings, the majority have one camera and one lens" You can ask if fewer people are getting married but the reality is more amateurs have stepped in to shoot weddings, it is an easy way to pick up good money without having to buy more than one camera. It doesn't mean the pictures will be any good, what it does mean is that people are settling for less.


 

omg, are you sleeping at night? or you are afraid that an amateur photographer gets your wife.


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## bennielou (Mar 16, 2011)

I saw something on the Today show that weddings were down by 26 percent.  Actually, not weddings, but marriages.

The economy is tough right now and those people who are having a wedding are postponing it, or working within a tighter budget than normal.  Gone are the days of the stockmarket heaven when you opened your mailbox and money fell out.  People right now are really worried about layoffs, businesses going under, and union busters.  Add to that the fact that the price of cameras have gone down substantially and people are taking their own photos or hiring a friend to take them.  I have 12 ex brides turn wedding photogog and many of them are actually pretty good, and shooting at a rate I cound not afford to shoot for.  (Full time job, carrying liability insurance, paying taxes and all that business stuff).

My phone isn't ringing like it did last year, but I'm hanging in there, and the jobs I'm booking are actually at a higher price point than last year.  But then again, I happen to have years of referral clients, and cater to some of the higher end jobs.

I'll probably break even with last year even though I'm working less.  It's been a weird year so far.


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## Nubbs (Mar 16, 2011)

ghache said:


> omg, are you sleeping at night? or you are afraid that an amateur photographer gets your wife.



LOL

I think people are also realizing that marriage is an outdated and not needed anymore.  It costs me more money in taxes because Im married.  I also get less in financial aid.  Both my wife and I make a good living and are in school and we get penalized because of it.  We even joked when we were filling out our taxes and finacial aid packets that if we knew this was going to happen that we would have never gotten married. We even joked that in the future it could be more economical for us to get divorced. 

We got lucky because a good friend of mine is a Pro Photog and he shot our wedding for super cheap and brought a friend of his as a 2nd shooter.

quick story.  I replied to a add on Criagslist for a "One day photographer"  I was just looking for gigs around the area to shoot and get some more experience. I am not a Pro nor do I claim to be or for that matter want to be. After a bunch of emails back and forth and the person not telling me what I would be shooting it finally came out that I would be shooting her wedding and she would be paying me $13 an hour if I use her point and shoot Nikon.   Needless to say I said I count do the event.


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## e.rose (Mar 16, 2011)

Nubbs said:


> ghache said:
> 
> 
> > omg, are you sleeping at night? or you are afraid that an amateur photographer gets your wife.
> ...


 
WHAT?!  You turned her DOWN at $13/hr and you wouldn't have even needed to bring your own equipment?!  Are you CRAZY?!

:lmao:


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## imagemaker46 (Mar 16, 2011)

@ghache, what in god's name are you talking about now?  A question is asked, responses are given and that's your input? There are quite a few words that would describle how I perceive your brain works, but I think just saying, not very well, sums it all up.


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## Ginu (Mar 18, 2011)

I think people are believing more in saving $ and postponing weddings for another time or having really small weddings; at least it sure seems that way. Out of my group of friends, only 1 out of 10 (10%) would spend the extra cash and get the whole wedding package, however typically those weddings are covered by their parents and its what the parents want not what the bride/groom want and can afford.

I got married two years ago now and sadly we were on a budget also. After much research we decided to keep the wedding on a small budget 5000$ and spend the money on more important things than just a party. We really wanted to have no more than 20 people but of course parents didn't go for that...

Instead hiering of a photographer, I bought a DSLR (D90) and had my brother, father and guest shoot as all we wanted was the day to be recorded. The result wasn't bad at all (some people know how to use a DSLR) and I was left with a new camera which started my photography hobby again as the old Praktica ML5 was just not cutting it anymore. I ended up doing my own editing and touching and saved a ton of $ not to mention left over toys.


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## usayit (Mar 18, 2011)

Wife and I tied the knot 10 years ago... $6000 USD (out of college).   Did some creative thinking to fit it in but it sure didn't feel like we went cheap.

* 80 people
* Off season
* Venue had a cancellation and moved us from the small hall to a huge 150 person one.   Felt nice to have all the space and big dance floor.
* Venue also gave us a top floor suite for the night.. free
* The manager saw us having a family breakfast (12 people or so) and took care of the check for us.. 
* Poor photographer had a fire in his studio and was down on his luck.   We stuck with him for $500.  He borrowed equipment and gave us the negatives.
* Mother in law went to the local college and found a live string quartet.  We simply welcomed them the party, fed them, and tip'd.  Live string music to walk down the isle was a very nice touch!
* Lucky for us, the matron of honor's mother had just bought her retirement home.  She gave us the keys for a two weeks as a gift.. free of charge.  It was at the nice Sanibel Island in Florida.   Even had money from the $6000 plus cash gifts to spend on our trip.  

Up here, people spend obscene amounts of these weddings...   kinda stupid I say.. to start out your married years in debt (or your family having to help out).  For what?  A party?  I think the economy has many people realizing they are no longer the affluent middle-class they used to be.  

On another note... I've heard several times from people whose spouse are wedding planners that high end weddings are still going strong.   Its the "regular" weddings going down along with the idea that marriage is not totally a necessary institution to buy into.


I like to joke with my boss...  he blew $6000 just on his daughter's 16th birthday party.   Go figure...


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## Nubbs (Mar 18, 2011)

See for us it was all about the party. We were going to get married one way or another. But when the family kinda made it known that they wouldn't be happy with us if we ran off and got married we said fine(they also informed us that they wouldn't be able to help us out with the cost either). We are doing this our way. We invited 300 of our closest friends and family and held one huge back yard barbeque. Had one of my best friends who also happens to be one of the funniest people I know ordained and he performed the ceremony.  We are very non traditional people and like to think and live outside of the box.  Wedding photos were done on one of my motorcycles even.

But this is all off topic.  I would agree that people are getting married less and those that are are spending less.  But those that want a big wedding are still spending some big time money.  I was at a $25k wedding last year for about 100 people.


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## c.cloudwalker (Mar 18, 2011)

usayit said:


> I've heard several times from people whose spouse are wedding planners that *high end weddings are still going strong*.   Its the "regular" weddings going down along with the idea that marriage is not totally a necessary institution to buy into.


 
Not at all surprised by that. From what I read, high end sales (ie luxury products) are doing very well. Some of the high end auction houses have had record sales last year.


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