Self Storage For Your Wedding? Say I Do!
On May 17 this year, wedding bells started to chime again – we could now have up to 30 guests at a wedding as COVID rules were finally relaxed.
Alice Hancock reported in The FT (Financial Times) reported on the wedding industry, which estimates it typically generates £14.7bn in spending a year and provides work for 400,000 people (May 7, 2021). The COVID crisis has been devastating for the industry. Many small companies didn’t make it through the crisis and had no access to any government support.
But if it’s been devastating for the industry, it’s been more so for couples whose dreams have been put on hold or even cancelled completely.
So when it was announced in July that restrictions had been lifted, there was relief all round. Even limited to thirty, this limit was less than half of the average number wedding guests. Nearly 500,000 weddings were waiting to take place as restrictions lifted, and around 350,000 are expected in 2022.
According to Bridebook’s 4th annual UK Wedding Report, couples were, pre-pandemic at least, waiting almost two years from engagement to wedding. The average wedding takes a LOT of work, and usually over months, as place settings, wedding party favours, table decorations, banners and balloons line up ready for that one special day, even more so if they’re being hand made. The average UK wedding before lockdown cost £16,005, excluding honeymoons and engagement rings.
With most couples combined average income falling at under £60k, that’s a hefty proportion of annual income to be spending for just one day.
So staying organised and on budget may be hard, but is absolutely essential, especially when you consider that the average pre-lockdown wedding included nearly 80 people at the ceremony, 60-120 at the wedding reception, almost 100 at the evening reception with around 50 being evening only. And the average wedding boasted an average of just under six attendants (bridesmaids and ushers),
Against this backdrop, homes with impending weddings start to feel like storage units, with boxes under beds, on tables, in cupboards – every available inch is used reminding us not only of what has been done already, but also what is still to do.
Being strongly organised is key to keeping everyone calm and the right side of going crazy!
Buying large quantities of items like candles decorations, ribbon etc. can save money, but adds to the amount of general wedding clutter that has even the boldest of brides wondering if their lives will ever get back to normal.
Fortunately help is at hand. Self-storage has never been easier to afford or access, and so popping many of those items into storage until you need them makes sense for both the lucky couple’s sanity and for protecting things from damage.
This approach, adding things to storage monthly and removing as needed, allows for better budgeting as well: things can be purchased over time and stored, being removed from homes or from storage as needed – perhaps coming out of storage as boxes of bags and ribbons and being returned to storage as completed favours for guests, for example. The favours are done, stored safely, and ready to come out when needed – one less worry, and held somewhere safe.
If you have any bits that are fragile and need protecting, here are the top tips to ensure they are safely stored. Or if you have any glassware that needs storing before the event, (or after, from the registry gifts) we can help with that too!
Anecdotally, changes in wedding formats have already begun, with venues reporting far more week day weddings than ever before as dates are being snaffled up.
According to the Bridebook research mentioned above, budgeting and staying stress free are two out of the three biggest wedding planning ‘stressors’. A storage unit filled with strong boxes allows you both to bulk buy, keeping your costs down, and also to stay clutter free, keeping your stress levels down.
But whether you choose storage, and choose us, or not, allow us to say congratulations. We hope your day goes amazingly well.
We’d love to be part of helping you for your big day and quotes are available, 24/7 here: https://book.easystorage.com/
We also offer easyStorage Boxes and other packing materials to keep all those items protected and dry including boxes of all sizes, bubble wrap/blankets/paper, tape and other accessories.
Otherwise just call one of our team, we’d be delighted to help!