A recent report by the Weddingplan insurance firm has indicated that the average cost of a wedding in the UK has risen to nearly £21,000! What’s more this appears to be a national average meaning that this figure could be substantially more for couples in the south of the country and even more that that for those tying the knot in London.

The soaring price of commodities has helped push up the cost of food and drink which is magnified by the change in trend to have a full sit down meal rather than just a buffet spread. This has pushed the average reception cost up to over £7000 including the venue hire, catering, drinks and entertainment making this by far and away the biggest cost for a majority of couples.

The second biggest outlay is the honeymoon coming in at £3220 and third is the Bride’s engagement ring averaging just over £1400.

The figures generated by the report , produced this summer, may well change fairly quickly however with the wedding industry expected to be hit by the recession even more than was thought at the time of writing.

The report continues the unbalanced trend in the wedding industry of a decreasing number of weddings against an increasing industry value.

To read more about the average UK wedding cost in the uk visit the main Evolution site or to find out more about the effects of the recession on the wedding industry view the Wedding Recession category of the Blog.

Here is a link to the full story which appeared in the Daily Telegraph - Wedding costs soar to more than £20,000!

Wedding Industry, Wedding Recession

No doubt you will have heard me say more than once that there are better ways to spend your money than buying advertising and hopefully you have read the Evolution Guide to Free Wedding Advertising. Whilst I stand by this view unreservedly, it is possibly a little harsh on one or two sites

My view on web advertising is that if you divide the price you pay for the ad by the number of click throughs you get from it (use Google Analytics for this) and the result is more than 50p then it is a waste of your money and a majority of advertising sites fall into this category.

There are however a small number of sites who do deliver good value for money on the number of visitors they send through, here is a list of them with a few comments about each one.

Your Wedding In - Yes I know, I know it’s one of our websites so I am biased, but there is noone else out there who offers to guarantee you a set amount of traffic or refund the difference - yet again a case of us putting our money where our mouth is! As a result you are ensuring your budget is being maximised more than if you were buying traffic on Google through their Adwords service. The site is based around usability and useful information from the bride’s point of view which is why the results are so good. If you’re a bit weary about parting with any cash then don’t worry, why not try it out for free? For your free wedding advert follow this link.

Wedding Services 4U - While Wedding Services 4 U isn’t as cheap to advertise on as some sites out there, time and time again my customers stats show good referrals from their adverts on the site. The site itself is fairly basic, but sometimes Brides prefer a more basic experience. 

Wed Network - Whilst the site may not be the greatest and the click through rate isn’t brilliant, the fact that they send you a list of qualified leads in your area makes it a fairly good solution. You need to be careful though as not all supply types get a great response so it can be quite expensive. I recommend trying it our for a few months and seeing how it works for you.

Easy Wedding Search - Easy Wedding Search used to be a free to advertise site and as such built up a large database which in turn generated a fairly large following. They’ve now introduced a charge for each advert however it is only £14 per year so certainly won’t break the bank and should bring fairly good results. You get a few added bonuses for signing up as well so well worth a look.

Guides for Brides - Not so long ago Guides for Brides would have been my number one selection but, although they still get good traffic to their site, the price of the advert needed to generate sufficient traffic has become quite expensive and they are also quite scarce as well. Still well worth a try if you manage to find space for a premium advert in your area though.

If you want to learn more about increasing the effectiveness of your wedding advertising then read our Wedding Advertising Guide on the main Evolution site.

I’d love to hear if you agree or disagree on any of these sites and if you have had good or bad experiences with these or any others. Please use the Submit a Comment option below to give your view.

Advertising

We’re using the christmas slump to really crack on and make progress on developing our new product, due to be launched next year and need help from you guys to make sure the product meets your needs.

As a thank you for helping us out I’ll give you a couple of featured listings on one of our bridal focussed sites worth nearly £200 just to make it worth your while. The conversation will last no longer than 20 minutes and you’lll get £200 worth of advertising in return for you time - surely that’s got to be a good deal?!?!?!

If you’re interested in helping us out, please call me in the office on 0870 300 4971 or email me advising of a suitable time for us to call you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Edward

Evolution Products, Free Stuff

Wedding Industry Hit by Recession?

I’m being asked this question at least once every day at the moment and whilst no one will know the answer for sure for some time yet, I can give a very good indication of what will happen over the next twelve months and further into the future.

The simple answer is yes, the wedding industry will be hit by the recession there is no getting away from it. I know many so called industry experts who have said that the wedding industry is immune to recession as people will always get married and while that is true, there is no doubt in my mind that, although some, maybe most, people will still be tying the knot, they certainly won’t be spending as much money as Brides in years preceeding - they literally won’t be able to.

The main factors that will effect the industry are as follows:

Unemployment

There are massive redundancies taking place in just about every industry in the country and this will have a knock on effect in the wedding industry, with Brides, Grooms and, maybe more directly, Brides Fathers being affected and therefore unable to make the financial outlays in line with the current average spend within the market.

Depreciating House Prices

In the past, when Brides have had to fund their own dream wedding, one of the first port of call to raise the finance has been a remortgage to release some of the equity that has built up in their property. While there may still be some people who can still venture down this route, for the majority it will be much, much harder.

Credit Crunch

This is really a continuation of the above point. Where Brides have had to fund their own weddings in the past, loans and other forms of credit have been a large part of planning their dream wedding and with this credit being harder to come by, their ability to spend is going to be limited.

General Financial Uncertainty

Any recession brings general underlying financial uncertainty and an unwillingness to make large financial commitments, and while there may be a number of brides who are already financially committed or will still make the commitment in the future, there will be a large number who will choose to wait until there is more security in the economy.

So what does this mean for businesses working in the induustry, is it all doom and gloom or is there light at the end of the tunnel?

The answer to these questions will depend very much on your own state of mind and your attitude towards your business and customers. I can’t stand here and lie to you and tell you everything will be fine for everyone because it won’t, but what I can say is there are some businesses out there who won’t just survive through these tough times, but will actually thrive as a result.

The way I see it is that a recession is a natural righting of order which will strip out the dead wood from the industry leaving the entire industry stronger as a result.

If you want to survive this downturn then you have to address certain aspects of your business and ensure that they are watertight - if they’re not it could be you making way for your competitors to thrive.

For a recession health check on your wedding business visit our Wedding Marketing Consultation page and fill in your details.

Wedding Industry, Wedding Recession

Free Wedding Advertising

Okay so I may have already spoken to most of you and offered you your free advert on our new site which is going live very soon. If for any reason I’ve missed you though you can visit the free wedding advertising page on the main Evolution site and register you details. If you can’t find the page on the site for any reason then you can follow the link on the right of this page in the blogroll section.

If you want more than just a standard ad, then all my loyal blog readers are entitled to upgrade to a featured listing for just £10 for the entire year - this normally costs £99 so you’ll be saving nearly 90%! To get your featured wedding listing contact the office and one of the team will walk you through the process.

If you have any suggestions for the new site then please leave them in a comment below, I’m going to be selecting the best one and giving away a prize to whoever suggested it!

If you want to see our guide to websites which offer free wedding advertising then visit the page on the main Evolution site. 

I’ll be posting another marketing article in the next couple of days.

Until then.

Edward

Advertising, Free Stuff