Walmart's latest sales ring in a marriage boom as couples hit by COVID-19 delays look to race down the aisle
- The latest sales data from Walmart indicates that the summer of 2021 may kick off a wedding boom.
- Shoppers are grabbing up products like bridal jewelry, artificial flowers, and wedding décor.
- The COVID-19 pandemic forced countless couples to delay or change their wedding plans.
After months of postponed ceremonies, a wedding boom may finally be upon us in 2021, as the warm summer air and advent of COVID-19 vaccines send cooped-up couples sprinting to the altar.
At least, that's the trend highlighted in the latest series of consumer-related pearls from Walmart. A Walmart spokesperson said that the company's sales of bridal jewelry spiked 80% year to date in April. Meanwhile, the retailer's seasonal artificial floral business jumped 250% from the beginning of the month. Wedding arts and crafts and wedding décor rose 150% across April.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many couples to re-think their special days. Some brides and grooms have opted for small, intimate ceremonies, live-streamed vows, or drive-in nuptials. Others canceled or postponed their plans altogether.
But Gartner Studios - a stationary company and a supplier for Walmart - found that 95% of couples who postponed their 2020 wedding plan to say "I do" in 2021.
Last year, when the pandemic forced many to rethink social plans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised Americans to avoid "large events," which could include big weddings, although the CDC did not "provide numbers to define small and large events."
Researchers from the University of Maryland, University of Western Ontario, and Texas Tech University previously found that there was "a dramatic decrease in year-to-date cumulative marriages in 2020 compared with 2019 " in "settings representing a variety of COVID-19 experiences in the United States."
"Year-to-date declines in marriage are unlikely to be due solely to closure of government agencies that administer marriage certification or reporting delays," the researchers wrote. "Together, these findings suggest that marriage has declined during the COVID-19 outbreak and may continue to do so, at least in the short term."
But the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines and the spike in wedding-related spending at Walmart doesn't mean a season of stress-free marital bliss, either. Until vaccination rates rise considerably, most in-person weddings in the summer of 2021 are advised to require masks as a precaution.