The International Certified Wedding Planner

For the International Certified Wedding Planner, the world is your canvas. But with financial markets struggling, there are signs the traditionally recession-resistant wedding industry may be starting to feel the strain domestically and globally.

While many sources, including the latest State of the Industry Report published by The Wedding Report, indicate the wedding market is steady, we are seeing evidence that the credit crunch and overall financial fears are causing many international couples to scale back their planning.

For instance, the Hawaiian wedding industry is reporting a drop in Japanese couples travelling to the islands for their nuptials. Meanwhile, the Filipino tourism industry is competing with Japanese traditional and non-traditional venues for that business.

Other industry news is more optimistic. In Australia, the local wedding industry is described as buoyant. In India, on the heels of a 25 to 30% annual growth rate, optimism for the wedding market is spurring the creation of an around-the-clock Hindi wedding channel. The Wedding Services Guild in Spain is holding the first Wedding and Celebrations exhibition in the southeast coastal town of Orihuela. Tours, France recently hosted forty young Chinese couples for their dream weddings.

Even in these tumultuous times, the Certified Wedding Planner is a well placed to succeed in the international market. With a U.S. domestic market estimated by The Wedding Report to reach well over $400M in wedding planner feeds this year and growing interest in the business of wedding planning overseas, the creative and diligent planner can succeed anywhere she or he desires.