The FINANCIAL — Almost every girl around the world dreams about wearing the perfect white dress on their wedding day. Due to the recession, the number one wedding trend this year does not include just one colour or dress style. Engaged couples have started reducing expenses for their wedding day. Despite the tense economical situation, according to The FINANCIALs’ inquiries, brides in Georgia still have the opportunity to look gorgeous on a tight budget.
“After local and global financial problems demand for wedding dresses has significantly decreased. The Shop-Salon Zizi is trying its best to make brides happy even during this time of economical problems and so is offering products at affordable prices,” Zizi Tatishvili, Director of Shop-Salon Zizi declares.
“August’s events in Georgia haven’t affected the local market. Only some of our foreign clients have cancelled their orders and gone back to their homelands. Brides in general may have reduced the extravagance factor of their weddings, but are still continuing to buy wedding dresses,” Medea Gloveli, Manager of the company Marionela, notes.
Tamar Nadiradze, Director of wedding dress producing company Marigold, says that financial problems have affected the company’s business as demand for wedding gowns has shrunk.
“According to the Wedding Report, 30% of couples surveyed recently abroad, say they are shouldering the wedding expenses themselves; 80% say they are affected by the current economic state and must scale back. “But budget-minded brides can still have beautiful weddings,” says Stacey Senechalle, one of the owners of White Chicago, the upscale bridal re-sale store at 222 W. Huron, Chicago. Here are some tips for beating the economy without sacrificing style,” ABC news reports.
At the company Marionela, which has existed in Georgia since 1993, the minimum price for a wedding dress starts at GEL 800. The cost of exclusive dress models can reach EUR 5,000-6,000.
“Mainly only foreigners buy the most expensive dresses,” Medea Gloveli declares.
Prices of bridal gowns from company Marigold start from GEL 700 and reach GEL 3,000.
“The high prices of dresses depend on the material’s quality and detail,” Tamar Nadiradze says.
“We offer our customers dresses starting from GEL 800, but we also have expensive dresses on offer for GEL 3,000. The most expensive dress which was sold by our company was for GEL 4,200,” Zizi Tatishvili declares.
“We buy some of our wedding dresses from Milan fashion shows. We also buy materials for wedding gowns from famous designers, for example from Ellie Saab and Iudashkyn. The prices for material bought from famous designers start from EUR 160,” Tatishvili says.
“Prices of wedding dresses are calculated according to the price of the material and by the amount of effort put in to its manufacturing,” Medea Gloveli declares.
Katie Qvlividze, 21, was planning to hold her wedding reception in an expensive Georgian restaurant last autumn. She and her husband George Tabidze, 25, were going to invite about 200 guests.
“We were having some problems with the budget,” Qvlividze says. “We decided that we didn’t need to spend so much money on the wedding’s design and so have cut the number of guests to about 130 people. Apart from the reduced number of guests, I haven’t reduced the budget for my wedding dress. In my view, despite having financial problems brides have the right to look their best on their wedding day and wear the most beautiful dress they can find.
“Although it’s expected that there will be a greater number of weddings this year (2.2 million) compared to last year (2.1 million), revenue for the industry is expected to drop 6 percent to USD 56.8 billion in 2009, from USD 60.4 billion in 2008,” according to The Wedding Report, a Tucson, Ariz.-based market research firm that tracks the industry.
“Average spending on a single wedding is expected to dip to USD 20,398 this year, down from USD 21,814 in 2008,” Boston business journal reports.
As the directors of wedding dress producing companies declare, brides in Georgia have good chances to look good with reduced expenses.
“Brides are able to hire dresses from our company for between GEL 150 to GEL 600. 70% of our clients are hiring dresses from our company and 30% buy,” Tamar Nadiradze declares.
“Even brides who have no financial problems can hire beautiful bridal gowns to wear on their wedding. We let them hire wedding gowns from GEL 150 to GEL 800. In case they want to hire a new dress though, the price does increase a bit,” Zizi Tatishvili says.
“Whether suffering from the economic situation or not, brides can still dress well for minimal expenses with our company,” Tatishvili says.
“The idea to start a wedding dress producing salon came to me on my wedding day actually! I was so pleased with my beautiful wedding dress and had the wish to make all other brides as happy and self confident as I felt on my wedding day,” Zizi Tatishvili declared.
“If you find a style of dress that suits you the best, it’s possible to spend less money and still look great in cheaper wedding gown options,” Tamar Nadiradze notes.
Mary Beaty, a Brooklyn chaplain who arranges elopements around the city through her website ElopeNewYork.com declares that many couples are not only down-sizing, but are attempting to spare their friends and family the expense of attending a big wedding.
Zizi Tatishvili thinks that this business in Georgia is starting to develop, but the economical situation has caused some serious problems.
“In 2008, our company’s annual turnover was GEL 90,000. We also have beauty salon branches and count the companies’ turnover totally. In 2007, annual turnover reached GEL 10,000, but after the August events in Georgia, income of the company was reduced by 20-25%,” Tatishvili says.
Written By Tako Khelaia
