Even couples who got engaged long before the holidays often double down on their planning efforts after the new year. “Over the holiday, everyone asks these girls, ‘When’s your wedding? What’s your wedding date?’ And those who don’t have an answer want an answer quick,” says Jennifer Stiebel, founder of SoCo Events, a Washington wedding planning firm. “If they don’t have that all squared up, panic sets in.”
Stiebel typically gets 50 percent of her inquiries for the year in January and February, so she’ll spend much of next month meeting with prospective clients, polishing her portfolio and touching base with favorite vendors. She gets some calls from couples just starting out and others from brides who got halfway through the planning process and began to feel overwhelmed.
One could feel that way just walking through one of the half-dozen bridal expos to be held in the Washington area over the next six weeks. Marc McIntosh is producer of the Washington Bridal Showcase, which will put on shows in Richmond, the District, Fairfax and Baltimore on consecutive weekends. For each one, he’ll expect about 3,000 visitors roaming through the stalls of 250 exhibitors ranging from photographers and stationers to florists and DJs. That might seems like an awfully stark buyer-to-seller ratio, but McIntosh says this is because of one peculiarity in the wedding business: There aren’t repeat buyers. (At least theoretically — plenty of people get married a second or third time. But using the same caterer seems as though it might be bad luck.)
“There’s this need for businesses in the wedding industry to constantly promote themselves — every month new brides get engaged and move in, and other brides get married and move out,” McIntosh says. But, he adds, “my audience is very motivated. They have a budget of money to spend and a deadline with which to spend it. ”
So, fear not, sweetpepsigirl. Your day will come. Maybe next year Santa will turn that lump of coal into a diamond. And you’ll be surfing over to The Knot in no time. ********dust*******.
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