200 Weddings Bonus! Top 2025 Trends so far!

Milestone moments deserve reflection! Having just completed my 200th wedding ceremony, I'm pulling back the curtain to share fascinating trends emerging in 2025. This mid-year review reveals how modern couples are reshaping wedding traditions while honoring meaningful commitments.

The data tells an interesting story: today's brides average 30 years old while grooms trend slightly older at 32-33. Nearly a quarter of couples include at least one previously married partner, reflecting evolving attitudes toward second chances at love. But perhaps most surprising has been the surge in waterfall weddings, with six ceremonies taking place at these natural cathedrals already this year. These breathtaking backdrops require extra preparation but deliver unforgettable moments for everyone involved.

Unity ceremonies continue evolving in fascinating ways. While hand fasting remains extraordinarily popular, I've witnessed truly innovative approaches including 3D-printed unity hearts, crystal sand ceremonies featuring meaningful minerals like rose quartz, and even my first lock-and-key unity where the couple literally locked their commitment and tossed away the keys. Equally exciting is the rise of "vow volleys" where couples alternate reading promises to each other—balancing heartfelt sentiments with humorous pledges while reducing the pressure of writing complete vows independently.

The wedding journey continues to surprise and inspire me, whether officiating at a state correctional facility or helping a couple reorganize with just 24 hours' notice when their venue suddenly changed. After 5,000+ miles traveled serving couples across multiple states, I'm taking a brief summer respite to regroup while continuing to share wedding wisdom through upcoming mini-episodes featuring various vow samples. Connect with me at officiatingbyamanda@gmail.com to discuss your own special day or share your favorite unity ceremony ideas!

Chapters

• 0:04 Welcome and 200th Wedding Milestone
• 4:49 Summer Break and Business Updates
• 5:50 Wedding Stats and Couple Demographics
• 9:35 Locations, Mileage, and Unity Ceremonies
• 15:57 Business Challenges and Contract Considerations
• 21:14 Upcoming Content and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to the WeddingWare with officiating by Amanda. Welcome back to the WeddingWare. Something kind of unique today and a little different. I just completed wedding number 200 and then I instantly went into wedding number 201. And I wanted to put out a bonus and kind of highlight some of the trends that I have seen so far this year in 2025, things that have been a little different, a little more unique increases or even decreases from previous years.

Speaker 1: 0:56

And, as we are in the heart of summer, I am getting more and more cognizant to my schedule, more and more cognizant to my schedule. So this is my little hey, I'm going to take a little break after this episode of kind of the typical content. I'm still going to work to have out some almost mini episodes between July and August. I'm also noticing that with my schedule, I have quite a few weeks without weddings, which is nice. That is not to say I'm not busy. In the 25 weeks that are left in the year, I have 22 weddings booked. So I will certainly be busy to five weeks from July 13th until pretty much the last weekend in August. I don't have anything wedding-wise and so I'm really going to use that time to dive in with my husband on our house hunt, going to be focusing on kind of cataloging everything I did in the first six to seven months of the year. Get the wedding website up to date, maybe take a look at packages and offerings and see where I can allow for the business to grow even further than it has this year. And then, you know, continue on in my job hunt. So for those of you that might have picked up bits and pieces over time, I have about 10 and a half years experience in frontline fundraising and at the end of 2024, got to a point where fundraising wasn't fun anymore. So put the normal nine to five life to the side and have been doing weddings, some consulting work, some odd jobs, selling commissioned crocheted projects, just a lot in the last six months as I've tried to find what works for me and for where I want to be.

Speaker 1: 3:00

Obviously we moved, we've done a lot of stuff. Obviously we moved, we've done a lot of stuff. But it's time to really jump back in and get myself into a place where, yeah, I could have benefits, where I can feel equally contributing in the finances of the household. So just a little housekeeping note that you'll still have out some episodes, but they won't necessarily be the story times. I have a few interviews that I've completed that I have to edit out. Gosh, it is really crazy that I think, oh yeah, I'll interview for like an hour. I sit down with fellow vendors and my past couples and we're talking for three hours, four hours. So, needless to say, the editing process on those is quite extensive and a lot. But I'm looking through all the content, looking at what episodes have done well, what sort of things have spoken to everyone.

Speaker 1: 4:03

Please, if you've had a favorite episode so far, drop me a line, let me know. Let me know what you want more of. Do you like the interviews? Do you like just the story times? Do you want shorter episodes? Do you want longer? I'm really going to be taking the time to look at the metrics, dive in and work to really keep this going in a very successful way, plus line up some more interviews, start to get them into the can and get them ready to go.

Speaker 1: 4:36

Just a lot, a lot happening. So I wanted to let you know, you know, if you are excited for your every single Wednesday. There will still be stuff coming out over the next six weeks. It might not be Wednesdays. I might try to play up the dates a little bit and just see what works. Maybe people like Thursday releases. I actually get a lot of listens on Thursdays, so maybe that's a better fit for timing. Maybe that's a better fit for timing. But also, you know, just really take the time to not be a crazy person, as I've been for the previous six weeks, 12 weeks, heck. Since the start of the year, 25 weeks. But thank you all so much for jumping in so far and listening along.

Speaker 1: 5:21

I've also been thinking about where do I cut a season off at, and I think I'll keep it to like the years. You know, right around the holiday time this year I'll call a wrap to the season one and then start season two of the podcast with, much like we did this past year, the overall stats. So consider this like your midterm, your progress report, because we are going to be talking about stats and things that have gone on so far in this year. All right, diving in. So so far, getting to July 1st of this year. Yes, lifetime-wise, overall, I have done wedding number 200 and 201.

Speaker 1: 6:06

In the year so far I have done 37 weddings and when you take the additional 22 I have on the books. That takes me to 59. That's just a little shy of like my highest year, but still really, really good. I like to be around 50,. 45 to 55 is a nice range. Especially when there's only 52 weeks in a year. It definitely means that there are some weeks of hustling. I've got in front of me you guys can't see it, but it's a gigantic spreadsheet of all of the couples' ages and if they've been divorced previously and how they found me and the location for the wedding and did they have unity. So that's kind of where I'm pulling all of these stats from to give you the most information that we've got going in this kind of midterm wrap.

Speaker 1: 6:56

There's a part of me that seemed like at the end of the year I should put these into chat, gpt and be like what's the most common name and middle name and age of couples and all that jazz. So we'll go forward from there. But giving you some intel, the average age of brides so far this year have been 30 years old, with the youngest bride being 22 and the oldest bride actually being 60. Absolutely fantastic. We do have 1, 2, 3, 4, absolutely fantastic. We do have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine out of those couples having been, of those brides, having been previously married at least once. So okay, not crazy, not bad.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Now let's look over at the grooms, or spouse number twos, as we look at this beautiful sheet here, and the grooms actually are older. So the average age is 32 to 33 years old, with the youngest being 23 and the oldest being 48. So kind of an interesting little balance there. Definitely some older women, but some younger women and men, kind of falling right in the middle. And I laugh because I'm three years older than my husband and this kind of trend shows it differently that the guys are typically three years older than the women, which is a lot of fun. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. We have 11 of the gentlemen having previously been married, including one who this was wedding number four. So we leave that at that.

Speaker 1: 8:39

All right, how do they find me? Let's see here. We definitely have a lot through WeddingWire, the Knot I am looking to in these next six weeks. Take the business over a little bit to Zola and try that out, because I know that there's a lot of controversy with the Knot and WeddingWire and I've experienced some ghost leads and some fake leads, and I've also had some fun with well, I pay for this, but I don't quite get that, so definitely looking at what the cost benefit analysis is for me on that end.

Speaker 1: 9:16

And are there other places to still get the couples from? Though, again, with as much as the Knot and WeddingWire have kind of against them in the industry, it is still the highest place I get couples from, so I got to keep all that in mind as well. So let's talk locations, and I will say one of the biggest things this year that I have not had before is waterfall weddings, and some of this was even before I moved up to an area which does have quite a bit of waterfalls around. But yes, I have done now so many weddings six of them actually at waterfalls gorgeous, beautiful. I will certainly have them in a location, kind of wrap-up of where you might want to go or what you might want to do, but absolutely gorgeous, and I laughed. There was one I did a wedding at. Oh gosh, I'm even trying to find it on my list here.

Speaker 1: 10:23

Why is it escaping me? Dry Run Falls, and it was about a seven to 10 minute walk to get over to the falls and every step of the way, I was just, you know, kind of really reflecting on how far I've come. When I started in this business, I was a very large woman, I was over 300 pounds, and I just have reflected that there'd be no way I could have done that sort of a hike over some unstable ground, some precarious steps, kind of leaning on the edge, any other time in my life, and so I'm really grateful for those moments when I'm able to get them and to really take the time to reflect with it. Mileage let's talk about how much I've traveled, because some of these falls and some of these venues have been in the middle of nowhere. So, round trip, wise, wise. So far this year we're at 5073 miles.

Speaker 1: 11:30

My poor, sweet car oh my gosh, she's a 2010 blue super outback named savannah. I call her savvy, savvy, the subi, and she is, she's my go-to. I know I have to start planning to let her go and to find my next business ride, but, man, the adventure she's been on for this. The states traveled all over the place and especially, I couldn't have done the move without her, really could not have. But yeah, that's a lot of miles to put on and that's just for the start of the year. I still have, like I said, 22 more weddings at this moment that I know of. So if anyone's got recommendations for a good, reliable car that could transport people or just lots of wedding supplies, good gas, mileage, dependable in rain, snow, sleet, hail all the weather that we get in Northeast Pennsylvania I would be more than happy for it.

Speaker 1: 12:37

So far this year we've had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. We've had 17 couples with a unity ceremony. In fact, my 200th wedding did a double unity ceremony. I'll be covering that in an episode. Hopefully be able to get the couple on Hand fasting very popular this year, which is awesome. It's one of the unities I do full inclusion on and I will have an episode out that is all about hand fasting where we get the tradition from symbolism and colors, the cords, different designs you could do with your hand ties. I love it.

Speaker 1: 13:22

Uniquely, I had a 3D printed unity ceremony earlier this year. The couple combined a heart together like an outer heart and inner heart and it was 3D printed, so that was really cool and unique for this year. I've done a bunch of sand ceremonies. But very uniquely, one of the couples that got married at a waterfall wanted a crystal sand ceremony. So that's not one of my typical offerings so they had to get the crystals. But really great, there was rose quartz and there was like a little graphite really just cool. They loved it. They loved the symbolism in the minerals and in the crystals even more so than just the normal color symbolism that I do with sand ceremonies. And we also had my very first lock and key unity where the couple put their locks together, locked them up tight and literally tossed the keys, threw away the key. So I was excited to get to write that around.

Speaker 1: 14:27

We've got counties all over the place. We even have a couple New Jersey weddings I don't really see kind of a trend yet Schuylkill County, luzerne those two stick out a little bit. Always happy when I can get a Berks County marriage license. For the number of years I did weddings based in Redding Pennsylvania, I know Berks County licenses really really well, which is great and fantastic Because it kind of incorporates a lot. As we've talked about previously. You're in a nice 20-minute range within a 30-minute kind of ceremony space. It's got Unity. It allows for customization. It's pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 15:21

A lot more Zoom rehearsals this year, which I'm not mad about Because I actually don't take that mileage into account in this tracker. I should. But going back and forth for in-person rehearsals I'm sure would absolutely destroy my bottom line, would raise prices insanely. So for those of you that are out there looking for an officiant, definitely think about could you be comfortable with a Zoom rehearsal where it's just the two of you getting kind of the marching orders and do you have a day of coordinator who's already going to line up everybody and tell them to stand there and look pretty? Do you really need to have your officiant in person? I get now why some of the other officiants in my area charge $200 separately to include rehearsal because, yeah, the time it takes, the travel range, it's a lot. So I definitely recommend that you think about that.

Speaker 1: 16:22

I do offer my couples kind of a. Do you want to guarantee me for in-person kind of a do you want to guarantee me for in person? Do you want to have it pending availability or do you want to go with zoom? And even you know option number four of do you want anything at all, which for paperwork and two-person elopement weddings I normally recommend that they? They don't do anything at all. Really nothing is. If you hear licking in the background, it's a dog. It's not my dog, but we're dog sitting a little bit here, aren't we, aren't we? Onyx Electronic is the highest version of payment, so shout out to all of my Cash App Zelle Venmo, out to all of my Cash App Zelle Venmo Payment Friends, even Apple Pay, love it, thank you. But I uniquely have to say that this year so far I've done a few prison weddings, and one of them I was paid from the inmate, so I got a check from the prison and that was really kind of cool and special.

Speaker 1: 17:37

And, lastly, some of the things of issues that we've seen this year. We had a wedding where the bride changed the venue in 24 hours, had some issues, and so I was booked on 24 hours notice. I really hadn't done a lot with my rush fee before, and so it was my first time implementing it and really trying to figure out like, okay, you know, I want to be really thoughtful of what the couple's going through and knowing that they're in a situation where, yes, they need an officiant and they need them for tomorrow, but wanting to balance out my need to like, just step in, help save the day, if you will, and you know, getting what is respectful for my time and the rush kind of time of everything. I've had a couple of weddings this year that I threw in hand fasting for, either because it was before I was going on a trip or it was my anniversary of officiating, which I've said it before that I'm open to advice from others on how to put together elements to back charge for these late starts. I do have it in my contract that I can charge fees and I ask for a Venmo or a Cash App name, but, as we all know, there isn't really a guarantee that they're going to pay that and I don't feel like going to like small claims court over 50 bucks or 100 bucks. But what's the best way? Do I turn the deposit, instead of it being a deposit, into more of an incidentals hold? So, for example, if a couple's wedding was $500, I in turn ask them for $600, that first hundred being $600. This holds your date and then, after final balance, after the wedding, after everything is said and done, that first $100 was also for incidentals and if you don't have any additional charges, congratulations, I can gift you back $100. I don't know, very interested to see what people think about that and if you've got any ideas, you you know I'd love to hear it. What makes sense to you? Or do I just kind of shut up, take it and, as couples run 15 minutes late, think about forgetting it? But I've had some significant delays waiting on a guest, waiting on the couple, waiting on the bride yeah, it can really throw off my day and my time, and outdoor weddings and the summer heat as I'm in right now yeah, it's not how I like to spend my time. So that's where we kind of sit, kind of a state of the business. It's been really cool so far to put this all together for this year and I'm excited for what all is going to happen next.

Speaker 1: 20:47

Oh, one of the other things I will say that's been more unique this year has been doing personalized vows either. That the couple just wants to be asked the question and they say I do, but I've worked with them to personalize it out, so it's not kind of the typical. And the other element that's gotten more common is doing a vow volley, so the couple would work together or work with me even, and come up with hey, these are the six to ten things we would want to promise each other, and some of them can be funny and some of them are more sincere. And then the couple divides it out and have it on pieces of paper and read back and forth. I vow to always share the remote control. I vow to look at you like I did the first day we met, but that way each of them didn't have to necessarily craft things themselves to get across this importantness and this personalization, but then they could also, you know, pre-hear what the other person's going to say. They still get to say something during the wedding. It's a really cool idea.

Speaker 1: 21:54

And, speaking of vows, that's actually going to be the content that you guys will be getting in the coming weeks with what I'm calling mini episodes. I'm not even sure how I'm going to log them in, maybe five minutes at a time. All of them are going to be samples of vows, so you'll get to see some fandom vows. You will get to see some vow volleys. You'll get to hear some of the typical and traditional vows that we have going. That's kind of going to be what gets us through as I take this little respite. Trust me, I'm not resting Anyone who knows me personally knows I don't really rest, but I'm going to do some pivot and focus and make sure that I can keep on top of everything, make sure that things get edited and I'm not too much on a backlog or under the gun to try to put out content. So that'll be that.

Speaker 1: 22:55

Thank you so much for listening. In so far we have not yet hit a thousand listens. I'm really hopeful that over the next six weeks new people will find the podcast, do some binging I've done that recently on a few podcasts myself and that when we resume up at the end of August we will be so close to hitting a thousand. I think that might be one of my first ones where I tandem film a video. I want to kind of go over some of the locations that I've been at a lot, put dots on a map, kind of make that investment in as well. Thank you all so much. Happy belated 4th of July. I hope that your summer is going well and smoothly and, as always, this has been Amanda.

Speaker 1: 23:45

Thank you for listening to the Wedding Wear with Officiating by Amanda. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and found some inspiration or insight for your own special day. This podcast is hosted on Buzzsprout and can be found on all major platforms. If you haven't already, please subscribe, like, comment and share to help us reach even more listeners who might laugh a little at the wedding wear For the links referenced in the show. Visit Linktree at Officiating by Amanda. You can also follow the business on Facebook WeddingWire and the Knot to stay up to date on everything going on. If you have a question you'd like me to answer on the podcast, just send an email to theweddingwirepodcast at gmailcom, and if you're ready to inquire about officiating services for your own big day, you can reach me at officiatingbyamanda at gmailcom. Thank you so much for tuning in and until next time. This has been Amanda.