What a difference a year makes for the marriage business in Dallas-Fort Worth

Even a pandemic cannot stop love.

Look no further than Berkan Dincer, 23, and his wife, Allyson. Dincer suggested the day after he learned that he was on leave from his job as a mandatory manager at the Sea Life Grapevine Aquarium. That was in March 2020 when COVID-19 stores closed and led to orders for on-site protection.

“It was definitely a weird feeling without proposing a job,” he said.

The months that followed – as the couple planned for one of the greatest moments of their lives – brought much concern as the pandemic worsened. For Allyson, 26, who has seen many of her girlfriends celebrate their dream weddings for the past few years, it has been hard to accept the idea of ​​a scaled-down event.

Her father falls into the high risk group susceptible to the virus. Berkan’s family lives in Turkey, and international travel practically came to a standstill.

Fearful but unswerving, they set June 5th of this year as their wedding date.

Your timing set the needle – just in time for the vaccine to roll out and restrictions to be relaxed, and before the Delta variant began to create new worries.

“With all the grief and tragedy of planning, I actually got to celebrate the wedding I always dreamed of,” said Allyson, who works as a clinical admissions manager at the Action Behavior Centers in Keller, a clinic that specializes in applied behavior analysis therapy offers for children with autism.

The Dincers are among the thousands of newlyweds in North Texas who had to wait through the pandemic to take vows. This resulted in a scramble this year to find wedding dresses and tuxedos, secure ceremonies and reception locations, and hire caterers, florists, photographers and musicians to complete their day.

Chelsea and Richard Gee also married in June, six months after their original date. The 29-year-old Southern Methodist University alumni added COVID-19 logs to their 225-person reception at Union Station in Dallas. They had wristbands for guests wanting to keep their social distance and they streamed the event live for Richard’s family in Mexico.

Most importantly, most of their guests were vaccinated by the wedding day.

“If there hadn’t been a vaccine, we wouldn’t have had our wedding,” said Chelsea.

IBISWorld researchers say the wedding industry posted a 34% drop in sales over the past year. However, she expects the marriage business to be on an upward trend over the next five years.

Despite all the roadblocks in 2020, there were still 107,508 weddings across Texas last year, according to the Wedding Report. In 2021, researchers forecast over 154,000 weddings in the state and more than 200,000 in 2022.

The average cost per wedding in 2020? $ 19,324. The Wedding Report researchers found an average cost of over $ 21,000 per wedding as early as 2021, still less than the reported $ 24,675 in 2019.

For Chelsey Morin, wedding planner and coordinator of Double Blessing Events in Dallas, her company had one of the most remarkable years since it was founded in 2013. Morin has run the company since the beginning with her identical twin sister. She worked with the Dincers to plan their wedding.

Morin’s company had sales of over $ 50,000 in 2020 and booked 25 weddings during the year. In 2021 she has already filled her weeks with 21 weddings and is booking for 2022 and 2023.

Your secret? When others paused their marketing, she went to Facebook to promote her services and advise couples who weren’t sure what the future might hold.

“These couples needed my help [then] more than ever, ”said Morin.

At least three of their couples had to postpone planned weddings between March and June 2020. She remained flexible to help couples cope with insecurity. Couples still wanted to get married, just in the smaller ceremonies that spawned the micro-weddings phenomenon last year. Morin said she only had one rejection in 2020.

“It was emotionally difficult for the brides,” said Morin. “It was a blessing to just be there for them and help them do it.”

If you’re looking for a Dallas venue this year, most of them are booked out on main Saturdays.

Chancee Proctor and Christen Janik are co-owners of The Schoolhouse on Chalk Hill Road. The two bought the venue in January 2020 and are booking through 2022. In 2020, the company generated $ 65,000 in revenue after closing and only operating about half the year.

The schoolhouse generated 75% of sales in 2021 from January to April as couples rushed to get married. The Schoolhouse will host seven to ten weddings each month from September through 2021, with additional dates available.

“We are very optimistic for 2022 and 2023,” said Janik. “I think we finally figured out how to optimize the business.”

The schoolhouse has already surpassed 2020 sales and forecast over $ 250,000 in 2021.

Billy Langhenry, owner of Mister Tuxedo in Dallas, said his company’s sales were down 40% from March to May last year compared to the same period in 2019. After reopening in May 2020, Mister Tuxedo rents out tuxedos every weekend for almost three weddings.

“We’ve never seen anything like it,” says Langhenry, who bought the family business over three years ago. Mister Tuxedo has been around since 1955.

The profits in July and August 2020 exceeded what the company made in 2019, he said. And then the typical summer heat of Texas causes the rental apartments to dry out. But this year the company is on track for one of its busiest years.

Wedding dress retailer Terry Costa posted a 32% drop in sales last year, said Kristyn Huckeba, employee engagement and head of the company’s bridal department in Dallas.

“There was just a fear that the industry in general would go under,” said Huckeba.

Brides who pushed last year opted for more informal and “smaller” dresses, Huckeba said. To accommodate that change, Huckeba said Terry Costa replaced most of its store goods and wrote to sellers looking for a different look.

“The brides still wanted the dresses somehow,” said Huckeba. “Ninety-five percent of them just needed more time.” Many couples decided to hold back until the restrictions were relaxed and there was more certainty about what the big day would be.

The store maintained its longstanding return and exchange policy. Without them, said Huckeba, the company would not have made it. However, attempts were still made to work with brides on payments or on a case-by-case basis.

The glamorous dress made a comeback this spring, she said. It takes around four to five months for dresses to arrive, and many brides plan for summer or fall weddings to get their dream dresses.

A short wedding dress can cost around $ 500, with additional fabrics or embellishments adding up at a higher price. The Knot estimated the average cost of a wedding dress in 2019 at $ 1,600.

Despite the backlog from last year, not everyone thinks the wedding business is back to pre-pandemic levels.

Jeff Hickock, known as “The Dallas Wedding DJ,” said that he usually spins for 40 weddings a year. Last year he had 11. This year he booked 16 weddings.

“I think there is still some hesitation in some people,” he said.

Allyson and Berkan Dincer on their wedding day.

The Dincers are among the lucky ones who celebrate their wedding as planned. But they also have their eyes on another reception in September.

“Since we got married, I’ve looked over at her and said, ‘This is the first time we haven’t really got something to be upset about,'” said Berkan.

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