Wedding planner urges couples to research suppliers as industry experiences ‘huge spike’ in demand

A WEDDING planner is urging couples to do their research due to a huge spike in demand within the industry.

Illy Goodall, who runs Illy Elizabeth Weddings in Sussex, has found that since lockdown restrictions have eased in the UK, and wedding guest numbers are now uncapped, the wedding industry has seen an increase in bookings across the board.

But while this is good news for the industry, she has said that it is resulting in more delays than usual.

She said: ‘Essentially, we have two years’ worth of weddings now being booked in all at once. There are the people that postponed their weddings which were cancelled due to Covid that are now rebooking now they know when restrictions will be eased, and then there are the people who got engaged over lockdown.

‘The suppliers, including planners, are under a massive amount of pressure and deadlines and the process is taking much longer than usual as a result. Because of this, couples are looking elsewhere for suppliers.’

She is urging couples to ensure they do their research before booking things for their wedding to avoid booking in with unexperienced people.

She said: ‘Because of the high demand, there are a lot more suppliers who have set up over lockdown that are now on the market. With the more reputable suppliers mainly booked up, people are having to do their own research when finding suppliers and are panicking because they’re not able to find these as easily.

‘My advice to anyone who is in this position would be to do your research. Make sure you’re cross checking a supplier, whether that’s through online reviews, social media, word of mouth or otherwise. Don’t go for the first thing you see either – there are a lot of people who have seen such a huge spike in demand and are jumping on the hype within the industry but are often unexperienced.

‘There’s a domino effect in the wedding industry that isn’t just affecting couples who have had their weddings postponed, but is affecting everyone involved, from planners, to caterers to decorators and everything in between. Hopefully this is the beginning of a boom in the industry and all restrictions will be eased within weddings as soon as it’s safe to do so.’