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thePeorian.com
S
ummer is generally
considered the most
popular season for
weddings, with more occurring
in June and July than any other
month.
The weather is warm, the
colors are bright, the pictures
sunny and magnificent.
But no wedding of any size
is put together overnight,
whether it’s done by the bride
and her mother and friends or
by wedding planners. The real
work for a wedding begins when
it is cold, gray and bitter outside,
often with snow covering the
venues where a few months later
those pictures will be taken.
January and February are often
the busiest months for wedding
planning and there is a good
reason for that, expects will tell
you.
“
We are so busy right after the
holidays. January is the start of
the bridal booking season,” Sara
O’Shea, a local wedding planner
and owner of So Chic Events.
“
The reason is because 60 percent
of all engagements happen from
Thanksgiving to Christmas. So
when the holidays end, we have
all these new brides-to-be and
they can’t wait to get started on
the planning.”
“
This is their big day so they
want to make sure everything
is perfect. Therefore, so do we,”
said Lisa Ragan, local wedding
planner and owner of Happily
Ever After Weddings. “The sooner
the planning starts, the better.”
Wedding planners? In Peoria?
You bet, and there are several
in the area. Once thought of a
luxury only found in big cities
or even in the movies, using
wedding planners is definitely
an upward trend in central
Illinois. Then again, the wedding
industry is one in which trends
are important and in almost
constant flux.
FOR BETTER OR
FORWORSE…
Trends in weddings change
often, from locales to attire
and everything in between
by Paul Gordon
This photo by Shelby Studios of an outdoor wedding near Peoria depicts the trend toward country-style
and vintage outdoor weddings that are becoming more popular, according to local wedding planners.
