Amid recessionary times, and sagging demand, wedding planners have no other choice but to cut prices. Agencies work with lower profit margins, but the real battle in wedding market will be in 2010, when the effects of the sluggish demand will be more visible.
Different evolution in crisis
If last year was better than 2007 to wedding planning agencies, the crisis impacted the market in the early months of 2009, a seasonal industry based on bookings made well beforehand, at least a year.
“In 2008 the demand increased significantly from a year earlier. Both the number and consistency of events improved and subsequently, the turnover of our company grew 60% accordingly. But in 2009, the picture turned bleaker, the number of events as well as services on demand dropped gradually”, said Anca Geanta, manager of Casa Anke agency.
Andreea Sacher, wedding planner at Grande Maison des Mariages said that an additional reason for the negative trend of the market was the fact that for any wedding planning agencies the beginning of the year is always more difficult, as few people want to have a wedding in wintertime. In early spring, there is a very long period of fasting, and the wedding season begins as late as April.
“For 2008, we had a turnover of 100,000 euros, and in first quarter 2009, we’ve experienced a roughly 30% decline year-on-year”, said Tiberiu Kulin, manager of Chic Mariage agency.
The primary reasons of the decline is the sagging demand, prices charged by agencies for provided services, as well as the number of guests as many people seek to cut back on expensive luxury weddings and go with a more recession-friendly ceremony.
On the other hand, Alin Caraman, manager of Bon Mariage, says the agency’s turnover of 2 million euros at end-2008 didn’t suffer any decline in 2009, and this because the company diversified its of
