The recession not only had an impact on how much couples spent, but also on when they decided to get married. I looked at about 25,000 samples we have collected over the years and compiled this table and chart to show which months couples were getting married. It is interesting to see that during 2008 and 2009, more weddings took place in October than in June. In 2010, it appears that dates have moved back to the normal pattern. What does this mean? It means that you should be seeing a shift back to normal patterns for marriage dates. However, in a previous post regarding Average Length of Engagement Time and Engagement Months – 2005 to 2010 we noted that couples are accelerating their engagement time, currently at 15 months.
Percent of weddings by month for 2005-2007, 2008-2009, and 2010.
| 2005-2007 | 2008-2009 | 2010 | |
| Jan | 2.79% | 1.84% | 3.32% |
| Feb | 2.89% | 1.74% | 2.63% |
| Mar | 4.84% | 3.30% | 4.31% |
| Apr | 7.31% | 5.68% | 7.55% |
| May | 13.32% | 9.69% | 13.21% |
| Jun | 14.65% | 11.84% | 15.97% |
| Jul | 10.70% | 9.96% | 11.53% |
| Aug | 12.60% | 12.28% | 10.41% |
| Sep | 11.40% | 13.83% | 10.84% |
| Oct | 11.16% | 17.26% | 13.76% |
| Nov | 4.77% | 7.23% | 3.94% |
| Dec | 3.59% | 5.36% | 2.52% |
Source/s: Proprietary surveys. About 25,000 survey samples over 5 years.