Couples ready to ‘go all out’ as wedding industry sees surge, says The Knot CEO

Weddings, including those with larger budgets, are on the comeback after the pandemic forced widespread nuptial delays, Timothy Chi, CEO of wedding-planning website company The Knot Worldwide, told CNBC on Friday.

“In the U.S., there’s about 2 million weddings that happen on average annually. We saw about 50% of those happen, so that just means there’s another million weddings then that got pushed forward, and we’re really starting to see that come to fruition here,” Chi said on “Squawk on the Street.”

As a result, Chi said, he expects a 20% to 25% increase in weddings this year and in 2022 compared with pre-pandemic levels.

The wedding industry saw a 34% decline in revenue last year as the Covid crisis led many weddings to be postponed or at least downsized, according to a report from market research firm IBIS World.

As weddings are picking back up now that most pandemic restrictions have been lifted, Chi said couples are “ready to go all out again,”…

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