U.S. marriage rates have fallen to what is almost an all-time low, and the fault likely lies with millennials.
“Millennials — people roughly ages 18 to 34 — continue to delay marriage because of economics, education and preference,” the Dallas Morning News reported. “In 1960, fewer than 8 percent of women and 13 percent of men married for the first time at age 30 or older,” University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen found. “Now, nearly one-third of women and more than 40 percent of men who marry for the first time are 30 or older.”
Naturally, since that number has fallen, the wedding industry has taken a hit as well. All of the people who make weddings possible — singers, caterers, florists, planners, etc. — are at a huge risk of falling on hard times sooner rather than later.
However, the Supreme Court may have just handed them their answer in the legalization of same-sex marriage. The passing of that law may be what the wedding industry needs to stay afloat. With the current spending on wedding ceremony accessories at $169, and other expenses soaring into the hundreds or thousands, an increase in weddings would be music to the industry’s ears.
“There’s going to be that many more marriages, it’s that simple,” predicted DJ Ace, the owner of Flawless Entertainment DJs in Long Beach, CA.
Though it won’t make huge differences in states where it was already legalized, such as California and New York, it will still make enough of one to help. For example, a NY wedding photographer, Denis Gostev, says he doesn’t think the law will affect him at all, since same-sex marriage has been legal in his state for almost four years now.
“If you asked me five years ago, maybe,” Gostev said. “It hasn’t truly been that big an issue in the last five years. In New York, it’s not that big a deal.”
With the projected increase of marriages, some worry it may also drive the divorce rates up, which will also be a huge help to the nation’s attorneys. Though according to the states where it’s been legal- it hasn’t been that way so far.
“I haven’t really noticed an increase in gay people getting divorced,” said attorney John Schrock of the Illinois law firm Sabuco, Beck, Hansen and Pollak. “You’d think you would see that, but it hasn’t come around.”