We surveyed nearly 10,000 couples—here’s what you need to know and act on

Every year is an important year for your wedding business—decisions to make, couples to attract, data to analyze…the list goes on and on. While we can’t run your businesses for you, we try to do everything in our power—from making the little things in your day-to-day to big business decisions—just a little bit easier. That’s why we’ve been releasing this report every year for the last 16 years. We spend 12 months each year creating the industry’s ultimate survey—and this year, we talked to nearly 10,000 recently married couples. Because knowledge is power, and we want you to have as much as you can get your hands on.

From understanding today’s engaged couples and how they’re planning their weddings to all the trends you need to know about, this report is chock full of actionable insights to help you position your wedding business as one that knows exactly what couples need and that they would be elated to hire.

When it comes to creating a successful marketing plan—and all the content that comes with it—you need to understand who you’re talking to. While you likely have a rough idea of who your ideal client is, you want to stay up-to-date with who today’s engaged couples are, too! Because…well, things are always changing.

Today’s couples are an average of 32 years old when they get married and are engaged for an average of 15 months. But 25% of couples move quickly with an engagement that’s 9 months or less and 26% of couples slow roll things with over an 18-month engagement. The majority of newly engaged couples start planning their wedding less than a month after getting engaged and nearly 80% of couples begin to research wedding venues within 2 months of getting engaged—though we know some of these folks move quicker because of short engagements!

The big takeaways from these numbers? Gen Z is more likely to inquire “later” than you’d like. Their family and friends are really important to them. And they are going to continue using different types of technology—but we already told you they live on the internet.

How couples planned their weddings in 2023

You work really hard to make sure everything about working with you is easy. The thing is, you live, breathe, and eat weddings, so
what seems easy to you can be challenging for couples. Today’s couples are incredibly excited to plan their weddings, but their top
challenges are:

Now, another big challenge we need to talk about is: inflation. 61% of couples surveyed told us their wedding budget and planning was affected by the current economy. Since the largest part of a couple’s budget often goes to their venue (on average nearly 40%), it’s important to keep in mind that these challenges may create financial and emotional stress for your couples. The bright side for you? Couples understand that things are more expensive because of inflation—of the 61% of couples surveyed who were affected by the current economy, 60% increased their budget at least once. Not to mention you have the opportunity to step in as a resource and guide them through these uncharted waters.

Since we know what couples are looking for before reaching out to you, we are constantly working to show these exact data points to couples through your Storefronts on The Knot and WeddingWire. If you haven’t already, make sure your Storefronts are up to date with the most accurate information.

As couples are looking at the value-adds venues are providing as a way to make the experience and planning process more inclusive, couples told us that many of you are wrapping additional services into your packages. Specifically, 76% of the couples surveyed said their venue fee included rentals, 44% said their venue fee included catering, 39% said alcohol, and 27% said accommodations. If you offer food and beverage as part of your packages, make sure it’s front and center! If you don’t offer these additional services, make sure to highlight your vendor partners that can flawlessly bring these things to life for your couples.

How you can find success in 2024 and beyond

Whether this is your first year in business or your twentieth, 2024 is shaping up to be one for the books! After years of needing to get creative with weddings for un-fun reasons, we’re back in a place where your creativity is sought after for all the right ones. 

As you look forward to this year’s wedding season and continue booking weddings beyond engagement season, there are a few last statistics we want to leave you with—so you can continue to build your business and better service your couples. 50% of couples surveyed said one or more of their vendors helped them to maintain or work within their budget—keep being a resource even if it’s not “your job”. And only 16% of couples surveyed described their wedding as “DIY”, so keep educating couples about what it really takes to plan a wedding and the value of hiring a team of pros—because it’s working!