In contrast to their great-grandparents’ generation, today’s bride and groom are older, more style-conscious and cashed up when they marry.
Accordingly, weddings are becoming more expensive and elaborate as, irrespective of the prevailing economic climate, couples continue to funnel cash towards the big event.
With the average Australian wedding last year costing just over $36,000, there’s a lot more than romantic expectations riding on the day.
According to the market research firm Ibisworld, the 19,000 Australian couples expected to walk down the aisle in 2012-13 represent $4.3 billion in revenue for the wedding industry.
With a bachelor of commerce degree and a masters of marketing behind her, Joanie Lim brings some vital hard skills to the bride and groom’s table as well as an undisputed sense of style. Her business acumen, event planning experience — which includes once setting up an ice bar in the desert for a corporate client — and eye for creative detail came together when she started One Wedding Wish after her own 2009 nuptials.
“I engaged a wedding stylist for my own wedding,” Joanie says. “It was a case of knowing what I wanted, but understanding there was no way I could be the bride, be having my make-up done and all the preparations in the morning and still be there to get it all set up.”
Couples can choose between a stand-alone styling service or the end-to-end package including styling, planning and co-ordinating.
“As soon as they sign on we sit down and I have a spreadsheet that I put together myself and we do a line to line costing, covering every component from her wedding dress, their rings, what budget is allocated for the honeymoon, catering costs, venue hire, bridal cars, flowers, celebrant, church fees.”
Seeing their dream expectations translated into real dollars for the first time can sometimes come as a shock to couples. “It is quite difficult for a couple without a planner to know how much things are going to cost,” Joanie says.
“A lot of the stress is taken away through organisation and pre-planning.
“For the bride and groom it’s all about that peace of mind. It is knowing someone is there that they can trust.”
