Bridal industry gets a boost

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Darcy Rowan and Antal Voros had discussed the possibility of marriage during their five-month courtship, but after watching the events of Sept. 11 unfold on television, their desire to bond became more urgent.

Voros headed to a New Jersey mall to shop for a ring that week, and presented Rowan with the diamond one month later.

"The terrorist attacks shook me up. I was really worried about her," said Voros, 42, who lives in Elmer, N.J., two hours away from Rowan, a Manhattan resident.

"We had talked about getting married, but this made me think, maybe I shouldn’t wait as long," he added.

There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that more people are getting engaged these days, although there aren’t any statistics to back that up. Many retailers, from moderate-price David’s Bridal to luxury goods seller Ashford.com, are reporting a jump in sales of wedding merchandise including gowns and rings.

There’s also an uptick in the number of people setting up bridal registries.

The surge in business is a pleasant surprise to the $70 billion bridal industry, which traditionally does the bulk of its business from January through March as couples prepare for summer weddings.

"This is usually a quiet period, the least busiest time. Most people are focusing on Thanksgiving," said Ingrid Kelly, director of special events for Conshohocken, Pa.-based David’s Bridal, which operates 144 stores nationwide. "But we are seeing a tremendous increase in bridal registries."

Bluenile.com, an online jewelry store, said that since Sept. 11, sales of engagement diamonds have shot up 20 percent from the year-ago period, according to Diane Irvine, the company’s chief financial officer.

Ashford.com had a 25 percent jump in sales of engagement and wedding rings, said Cheryl Holland, senior vice president of merchandising. And Wedding World Inc., a 19-store bridal chain based in Altoona, Pa., so far has a 22 percent gain in sales in November at stores open at least a year. That follows an 11 percent jump in October from a year earlier, according to David Kaufman, the company’s owner.

"The Sept. 11 event is giving the business more momentum," said Kaufman. "This is usually our weakest quarter, and we are doing very well." He added that business was helped by people in the military who wanted to get married before being sent overseas.

The wedding industry typically is one of the few sectors that holds up in a recession, although couples tend to scale back on expenses when money is tight. The marriage rate in the U.S. has stayed constant, at about 2.4 million per year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

Millie Martini Bratten, editor-in-chief of Bride’s magazine, said it’s not known if the uncertain times have made couples choose more intimate weddings or bigger affairs. She is hearing that consumers are heading in both directions.

Rowan and Voros, both divorced, are planning a more intimate ceremony because this is the second time around. She will wear a simple dress for the wedding set for November 2002.

On the other hand, Sept. 11 prompted Patty Walsh, of Waterbury, Conn., to spend $6,000 more on her wedding, padding an initial budget of $14,000.

"I realized that what’s money at this point. I wanted my wedding to be the best it could possibly be," Walsh said.