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.
Starting on April 28 in Houston and concluding in Santa Clara, California, on July 17, the Rolling Stones will make their way across the U.S. and Canada.
Despite inflation and memories of past holiday travel meltdowns, millions of people are expected to hit airports and highways in record numbers over the Thanksgiving break.
Chef Joshua Resnick from the Institute of Culinary Education joined Cheddar News to provide tips on how to prepare the perfect turkey for this Thanksgiving holiday.
A study published in the Journal Scientific Reports found a certain compound that occurs naturally in red wine could block the body's metabolism of alcohol.
Ahead of the Christmas holiday shopping season, there's a new toy trend called greener gifting. Marissa Silva, editor-in-chief of The Toy Insider, joined Cheddar News to discuss some of the toys available that are also Earth-friendly.
