GREENSBORO, N.C. — Let those wedding bells ring. If you are in a serious relationship, or looking to get married in the next year or so, be prepared.
Signet Jewelers, which is the largest diamond jewelry retailer in the world, said it expects an increase in engagements potentially complicating your wedding plans.
Jamie Singleton, Signet's Group President and Chief Consumer Officer, said when COVID lockdowns began, some couples rushed to get engaged, but a lot of early relationships faded and there was a dramatic decline in dating.
"This led to the engagement gap that we are still seeing today," said Singleton. "People were eager to resume relationships and dating picked up in a big way as soon as people were able to get back out. That was a trigger for us because we have so much insight into a couple's journey, from meeting to dating to getting engaged and then getting married."
Singleton said the company tracks 45 different milestones to get a better understanding of what is to come.
"There are certain predictors that are stronger, from moving from one phase of a relationship to another, and sometimes it's not just the one trigger by itself, it's certain ones in combination with others," said Singleton. "For example, moving in together is a strong predictor of engagement, but if a couple meets the parents of their partner, combines finances, and also says I love you in a visible space like a social media post, then that combination is a major predictor of engagement."
Based on proprietary customer insights, Singleton said they can predict when the engagements can pick up or slow down.
"Dating is up 8% to pre-Covid and we don't see that behavior going away," said Singleton.
Singleton said when the Covid lockdown began, there was a decline in dating, which led to an engagement gap, which meant fewer engagements.
Now the company predicts more people will be getting engaged in 2024.
Here in the Triad, wedding planners are seeing the big wedding events pick back up, along with something they didn't see before COVID-19.
Summer Wells is a wedding planner and owner of Events by Summer Joy. She said five-year renewals are picking up.
"We have a lot of 2025 clients wanting to do a larger gathering in celebration of their five-year renewal and at first, I was like 'five-year renewal,' then was like 'Oh, because of 2020 the pandemic, they were not able to celebrate with friends and family, like we currently are now,' so a lot of them are planning very big weddings and events so they can have all their loved ones together to be able to celebrate their love and their marriage which is really exciting to us," said Wells.
Wells said while 2022 was extremely busy, 2023 is back to a more normal pace.
Wells is already booking weddings in 2025, which isn't unexpected, but she said she is ready for any extra proposals to come her way.
"We have actually honestly expanded our team with even additional staff, additional planners because of the expansion of events again, and we are really excited, so I say bring on the proposals, let's get creative, let's do all kinds of events, and I think we're all excited to just celebrate their relationship and their love," said Wells. "Even for corporate nonprofits, they are really ready to party again too so we're really excited about new proposals you know all around and I think we're ready for it so let's do this."
Torri Moore, a professional wedding officiant and pastor for Tie the Knot with Torri. She said she is seeing the same thing, that bigger weddings are coming back and five-year wedding renewals are happening more often.
"You know, typically it takes about 12-18 months to plan a wedding and now that things are semi-back to normal, we're moving all of the weddings that were canceled to either 2024 and now 2025," said Moore.
Moore said one thing that's been different for her is that she is marrying some of the same couples, twice.
"It has really been a whirlwind, but it's a good thing," Moore said. "Weddings are the best time ever and the great thing is I've married a lot of people twice, I marry them intimately and privately here at my office in Greensboro, then we had the big pomp and circumstance wedding at the venue."
Both Moore and Wells said they are on their toes for what could come, as engagement season is just around the corner with holidays coming up.
"Engagements are coming right, it's engagement season with Christmas coming and things like that, which it's a revolving cycle, it's a never-ending cycle," said Moore. "Next year, we'll have more engagements, we will have more mini-monies, we will have the big ceremonies, but nothing is going to stop love and marriage."