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.
Thanksgiving is all about spending time with family and friends, but it also comes with social obligations. Dr. Sheree Sekou, principal consultant at Sheree Sekou Consulting, joined Cheddar News to discuss how to navigate holiday etiquette and answered questions from Cheddar News staff.
As Americans prepare for their family feasts Thursday, a new survey named some of the most popular dishes on the table. Plus, Vogue released some of the top TV episodes to watch with family after dinner.
November is when Haiti commemorates becoming the first independent Black republic in the world. And 120 years later, the country's development continues. Haitian-American actress and humanitarian Garcelle Beauvais and Alex Cantave, senior program officer for Haiti at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation spoke with Cheddar News about their partnership to help the country's Pockets of Hope campaign, which looks to generate $90 million for education, health, and economic development initiatives in Haiti over the next three years.
A happy ending for a deer trapped in barbed wire for two days as the rescue played out on video caught on body cam footage from deputies at the Columbia County Sheriff's office in Wisconsin.
Walmart says it is working closely with investigators to try to determine why a shooter opened fire at one of its stores in Ohio and wounded four people before killing himself.
