(We Chinese in America Media Editor Tang Zhao, February 14, 2022) The number of marriages in the United States has soared this year as the pandemic eases. The picture shows the newlyweds getting married at a California beach on Valentine's Day last year. (Getty Images)

The new Covid 19 epidemic has entered its third year. Looking back at the early outbreak of the epidemic, people lived a life of isolation, and many newcomers dared not hold weddings. Now that indoor activities are gradually opening, couples who can’t bear the joy are scrambling to choose wedding dresses, churches, floral arrangements, photographers, and wedding singers, but with inflation, this year's weddings cost a fortune.

According to a study by The Wedding Report, a wedding market research agency, 2.5 million weddings are expected to be held across the country in 2022, the highest record since 1984, which will stimulate all wedding-related industry chains. As the epidemic slows, the supply chain tightens. It is also reflected in the wedding industry.

"We expect each couple to have a 10% to 15% increase in their budgets," Shane McMurray, founder of The Wedding Report, said in an interview with CBS' MoneyWatch. The average cost of each wedding this year has risen from $24,000 before the epidemic to $27,000. Coupled with the help of inflation, wedding professionals have expressed that the cost will increase, and price increases are inevitable.

In addition, some newlyweds who were originally scheduled to get married in 2020 or 2021 were forced to postpone their wedding date to 2022 due to the epidemic, but their weddings were still calculated at the previous relatively cheap rates. Under the trend of price increases, some wedding venues can only accept the loss.

Take Brooklyn Winery, a famous wedding banquet hall in New York City, for example. The cost of ingredients, waiters and all kinds of things has risen, but they do not charge the increased fees to guests who booked before the epidemic.

“All of our costs have gone up, but we’ve adjusted as much as possible to avoid passing those costs on to our guests,” said Rachel Sackheim, chief operating officer of the Brooklyn winery. We still have to re-evaluate because we can't bear the effects of inflation on our own."

Sackham pointed out that for those who signed up before inflation, the operators are bound to take a large part of the loss "because we can't increase their prices."

To organize more weddings to balance the income, the industry also encourages newcomers to get married on weekdays and avoid non-holidays or weekends, which is not only more cost-effective for newcomers, but also more flexible in date selection; Sackham said: "Newcomers who insist on getting married on weekends, whether it’s a wedding dress, a wedding or a flower, the cost will be higher.”

(Source: Compiled from Online Information)