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Vendors see record-breaking demand as wedding season kicks off

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — From one extreme to the other during the coronavirus pandemic, the wedding industry is seeing a boom as canceled events are rescheduled.

It is a race against the clock to make it down the aisle in 2021. Now that people can finally start having large events again, wedding vendors have gone from living a nightmare to a very busy fairy tale.

From the cake to the DJ and everything in between, couples who hope to get married in 2021 are running out of choices for vendors as they see a demand like never before.

“Florists are having trouble with getting certain flowers again, having photographers, videographers being able to balance schedules so that they can move them around. When they would have one wedding per weekend, now they are having two or three that they are having to juggle,” said Danielle Lea, CEO of Events by D Nicole.

After events were postponed in 2020, the wedding industry expected a boom. Some local vendors in Indianapolis are seeing more requests than they can fill.

“This year, we are going to pretty much double what we did in 2019,” said Paul McAtee, city manager at DJ Connection.

“It has more than doubled down. I would say triple down because it is just beyond anything I have seen,” said Larry Foster, owner of Kim’s Kakery, Bakery & Café.

While some have been patiently waiting on their big day for more than a year, “we have the original events, we have reschedules and we even have people that have moved their date forward, move their day back, and some have even moved it again,” McAtee said.

Others have skipped the line and are trying to get down the aisle in a matter of weeks, “come in and say that we decided to get married in three weeks and the venue is open now we need a cake. I am like well, I am not sure I can help you,” Foster said.

With so many vendors stretched thin those last minute requests are getting harder and harder to fill.

“Being flexible and being open to what their day now looks like versus just this set in stone, I have to have these things and I have to have it at this place,” Lea said.

If you wanted to “save the date” for peak wedding season, you may want to try 2022.

“We are stacks upon stacks for September and October, which are the two biggest wedding months of the year,” Foster said.

Experts predict that the wedding demand will level out in late 2022 or even 2023.