Today is National Wedding Planning Day, and Cheddar News' Shannon LaNier visited a bridal shop on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to get an inside look at the ongoing "wedding boom."
What is the wedding boom? Well, there were a record 2.6 million weddings in 2022, which is up from 1.9 million in 2021 and 1.3 million in 2020, according to a report from The Knot, a wedding planning agency.
That amounts to about 7,123 weddings per day in the United States. During these special events, guests spent an average of $460 to attend and more than $1,000 if the wedding required them to take a flight.
The current upswing in weddings follows a sharp dip in 2020 due to the pandemic. Now the competition for vendors and venues is getting stiff, requiring even more planning.
Lauren Kay, executive director at The Knot, said the pandemic forced a number of changes to accommodate social distancing and other restrictions. This led couples to get more creative and add more personalized details to their weddings.
Now, in 2023, couples are carrying this trend forward. For example, many are holding "unplugged ceremonies" in which no photos or videos are allowed from guests. Another trend is more themed weddings, such as "Roaring '20s" and Star Wars.
Women outnumber men in the largest urban counties east of the Mississippi River, along the Eastern Seaboard and in the Deep South, while the West skews male, according to data released last week from the 2022 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.
A giant panda at the Beijing Zoo had a lot of fun playing in the snow this week.
A favorite animal at the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri is moving to Columbus, Ohio.
Cheddar News staff pulled some of their ugly sweaters out of their closets to celebrate National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.
George Clooney and Adam Sandler are teaming up to star in a new feature film for Netflix.
A new study found daydreaming could have big benefits.
A new study published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution is shedding light on why some people are morning folks.
With holiday shopping underway, people have to be aware of authentication when purchasing quality luxury gifts. Maya Ali, head of handbags at MyGemma, joined Cheddar News to provide tips on how to spot fake luxury bags.
You've never heard harmonica like this! Check out this group that gets together to jam out, picking out songs you don't typically think of when you think of the pocket instrument.
Wondering what to watch this weekend? This week we have a rebel cyclist, a rebel who built his own island, and some rebel children who entered a magical wardrobe.
