Wedding Opportunities for Grocerants

Get ready! September and October are now the most popular months to hitch.

The average wedding cost has surpassed $35,000 in 2016, a full 8% higher than in 2015, says The Knot study of 13,000 recent brides and grooms across America.  

This shared expense between the couples and their families exceeded budget nearly half the time, the survey found.  This reflects a willingness to spend more on all aspects of the wedding, from memorable guest experiences such as wine and liquor tastings, to catering, cake and flowers – with these elements already part of many supermarkets’ portfolios.

So why shouldn’t supermarkets and their grocerants and bars vie for some of these big-ticket opportunities?   They already cater graduation parties, communions, holiday dinners and other milestone events for families that know and trust them.  Today’s brides and grooms grew up on supermarket food, after all.

The spending ceiling keeps growing as weddings evolve:

• The Knot pegged catering costs alone at a $71 per person national average spend; for the 141-attendee average, that’s over $10,000 just for food.  Add in the wedding cake at $582, and flowers at $2,534.  
• Wedding venues are changing – and with it so are potential opportunities for grocerants.  According to The Knot, 25% of ceremonies in 2016 occurred at farms, barns, ranches, historic buildings and homes – up from 11% in 2009.
• Also, autumn weddings now account for 40% of all weddings, led by September and October at 16% each.  So prime season is coming up in a couple of months.

Grocerants may want to compete to cater weddings, or start smaller with rehearsal dinners, bridal showers and cocktail parties that surround the main event – depending on their ability to scale and manage these events.