Economic reality crashes dream weddings

updated 2:58 p.m. ET Feb. 16, 2009

NEW YORK - Maria Ayson and Nolan Green Jr. should be married by now.

The couple set a date, picked their reception hall, bought the dress, booked the photographer and ordered the cake for a Saturday last August. Then came the bad news.

"When he got laid off, we were kind of caught with our pants down," said Ayson.

Rather than trying to plan a wedding while Green was looking for a new job in electronics retailing, the couple decided to push their date back a whole year. Ayson said putting off the wedding "was the best thing for our sanity and for ourselves." Especially since his new job forced a move to Los Angeles, while she remained in San Francisco.

The delay until Aug. 9, 2009, also gave them time to rethink their wedding plans and try to find ways to scale back the party, without sacrificing on the celebration.

That's a step that countless couples are taking, as economic reality confronts one of consumer culture's most cherished institutions, the dream wedding. From do-it-yourself decorations to dancing to an iPod instead of a DJ, couples are scouring for savings.

The numbers tell much of the story: This year couples are expected to spend an average of $20,400 on their weddings, down 6.5 percent from 2008. The forecast also marks a 29 percent drop from 2007's average of $28,700, according to The Wedding Report, a market research company based in Tucson, Ariz.

Less-than-royal budget
Tough times offer some a chance to embrace their inner tightwad and, in select cases, toss a little scorn at the $60 billion industry that bridal bloggers sometimes refer to as the "wedding industrial complex."

Indeed for many it's a chance to use talent and ingenuity to find ways to have a party fit for a princess on a less-than-royal budget.

After looking around and comparing prices on various items, Christina Duffy Erdman came to a conclusion: "I had to cut back." All told, her June 2008 wedding in Los Angeles came in at about $10,000. "I felt like a princess, but (spent) a lot less money."

One move Erdman made may be a telling sign of a recession-era wedding: She bought her dress on eBay.

Erdman said she searched numerous bridal shops and found the perfect strapless gown by designer Maggie Sottero, but the $1,200 price tag was just too high. Then the resident of Thousand Oaks, Calif., checked the online auction site and found the exact dress for just $200.

That's a mere fraction of the $841 The Wedding Report projects will be the average spent on a dress this year — a price tag that's 8 percent lower than the 2008 average of $916.

"I didn't know what I was going to get," Erdman said, admitting she had some reservations. "I didn't even have to alter it. It looked stunning on me."

Erdman, an interior designer whose business stumbled as the housing market crashed, used some of her creativity to craft her own decorations, including a "Wish Tree," to display ornaments with tags bearing wishes from their guests. She couldn't find one online for less than $200, so she made her own for less than $5.

But she and her husband Ted did have to cut out some extras. "There were some little details that I let fly." she said. "Then you realize that nobody cares."

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