The economy, weddings, and cutting back

All the bad economic news of the past few weeks has a lot of people nervous, couples planning weddings among them. The big wedding becomes a much smaller affair, photographers, videographers, and DJs are booked closer to the event, perhaps video or photography is eliminated. As a professional videographer I certainly hope that brides and grooms will want video at their wedding. There are some compelling reasons to keep it. You might spend a lot of money on flowers, or table decorations, but will they tell the story of your wedding years later? Even photography can’t capture the actual vows, or what the bride’s father said during the toast.

It reminds me of the time right after 9/11. My wife and I were planning our wedding and in those months of uncertainty, we went from having a string quartet and a reception at an expensive restaurant to something much more reasonable.  We also dropped the idea of a Caribbean honeymoon and drove to Canada instead.

I have seen fewer bookings this year compared to last. It dismays me to think that we may not do as many weddings next year, but hopefully we will. As I mentioned many couples will book later. We are not cutting back on advertising or dropping our rates. Realizing that couples may not have as much money to spend, we have held the price on our lower priced package to where it has been for the past two years. And we will not cut back on service. Service costs nothing. Quality is free. No matter where the economy goes in the short term, things will get better. We intend to ride it through and strive for the best.