Isabella Farrell with her husband Shawn and their Moto Guzzis adorned respectively with a veil and bow tie for their entrance. (Courtesy of Isabella Farrell)
New Hampshire’s wedding industry is expected to generate over $331 million in sales in 2025 according to data from The Wedding Report, an industry research firm. While inflation and shifting priorities push some toward smaller, more personal celebrations, others are splurging on show-stopping events. One thing is clear: In today’s wedding landscape, creativity reigns supreme, and every couple gets to write their own rules.
Inflation, however, isn’t sparing the wedding industry. All too often, getting hitched carries a hefty price tag, with the tab for a lavish affair easily topping six figures. Since the onset of the pandemic, prices for everything from the dress and DJ to the florals and the photography have surged. For example, between 2019 and 2023, the average cost per guest rose from $214 to $304, up more than 40%, according to The Knot 2023 Real
Weddings Study.
In NH, the average cost for a wedding in 2024 was $33,000, a $10,000 jump from a decade ago, according to data from The Wedding Report.
Skyrocketing costs leave many couples swapping a blowout shindig for a backyard soirée or an intimate barn wedding. They want to create a day that’s unforgettable, but they don’t want to break the bank.
To defray expenses, some couples are trimming their guest lists. Wedding planner Amanda Storace of Moments to Remember in New Boston says that among the 40 weddings she has booked for 2025, only a handful crack the 150-guest-mark. In contrast to 2019, anything smaller than 150 was the exception.
Before COVID, her clients spent an average of $20,000 to tie the knot. “COVID kind of ballooned everything,” she says. Now the fare for that same wedding could set couples back $35,000 or more.
Toutou Marsden, owner of Dell-Lea Weddings & Events in Chichester, agrees that weddings are getting smaller and costlier. She says it’s not only food prices that are rising; wages are also up. That’s a big deal when venues like hers offer a high-maintenance post and beam barn with 20-foot ceilings situated on 236 acres. Since weddings and catering are virtually all she does, she needs to keep wait staff, chefs, cleaners, groundskeepers, janitorial crews, and administrators occupied and happy.
“You have to pay a little higher to make sure they [the staff] come in to work the next day,” she says.
Marsden also notes the number of weddings at her venue were lower in 2024. “People took a step back and took a pause on their financials,” she says.
Questioning Marriage
Many couples question whether they need to get married in the first place. The marriage rate has been on the decline since 1984, says Shane McMurray, chief executive of The Wedding Report. Millennials—now in their late 20s to mid-30s—are in no rush to say, “I do,” and their Gen-Z counterparts are even less enthused about the institution.
“Unless that significantly changes with the younger generations, I’m not sure we’re going to see an increase in weddings. I think we’re just going to continue to see it decline,” says McMurray.
Rachel Whitman of Portsmouth is one such study of attitudinal shifts. She met her now-husband in 2019, they moved in together soon afterwards and had a child in 2021. Two years later, they bought the house they had been renting. That same year, they became engaged.
“We’re together. We’re raising this kid,” she remembers thinking. “We can get married whenever. It’s not that important.”
Initially, Whitman and her fiancé toyed with the idea of a courthouse wedding. But while planning a trip to Key West last April, at the last minute they summoned their immediate family to join them for a Saturday brunch and ceremony at the resort where they were staying. “And then we spent all day by the pool in cabanas. And that was that.”
While only 5% of un- or yet-to-be married couples choose to become parents first, that number is growing.
In a survey initiated by Civic Science, a consumer polling company, only 9% of engaged couples preferred a big wedding. More than half opted for a small gathering while nearly 40% leaned toward eloping. The numbers also reflect a reality check: Over 80% of respondents said saving for a house was just as important—or more so—than saving for a wedding.
A study published by The Knot underscores this change in priorities, with the majority of Gen-Zers ranking home ownership over a wedding. In fact, unwed couples comprise almost a fifth of the share of first-time home buyers, a huge leap from when it was just 4% in 1985, according to the National Association of Realtors.
“Couples are increasingly using their wedding registries to support their goal of buying a home,” says Hannah Nowack, senior weddings editor at The Knot.
The share of couples on The Knot including “home funds” as part of their wedding registry has increased 62% since 2018. Now, nearly 20% of all couples registered on The Knot are asking their guests to help them with the down payment on their first home, according to Nowack.
The New Wedding Math
The Netflix series, “Marriage or Mortgage” struck a nerve with young viewers for good reason. The reality show pitted a wedding planner against a real estate agent as they competed over the merits of a dream wedding versus a dream home.
As of 2023, the median price for a single-family house in NH reached $470,000—a 66% increase in just five years and a 114% increase over 10 years, according to the NH Association of Realtors.
It is no surprise that in the Netflix series the practical long-term investment of a house often won over the short-term expense of a wedding. That was the logic Amelia Filloramo followed when she convinced her then-boyfriend to ditch Boston for NH, where she grew up and where home buying wasn’t impossible.
“Lo and behold, it was a nightmare. The market was crazy,” she recalls. In 2022, they landed a 1879 fixer-upper in Milford—a charming wreck with a four-foot hole in the kitchen floor. “It was the one house we could afford.”
Floors trumped florals and five-tiered cakes and wedding funds turned into repair budgets. Fortunately, her parents’ backyard in Bedford created an ideal spot for 16 guests with catering from Whole Foods and the local Giorgio’s restaurant.
Maia Hanlon and her husband Dave went even more bare bones for their reception. They didn’t serve any food at all. Granted, Hanlon got married in 2020, the era of Zoom vows and six-foot distancing, but her minimalist mindset predated the pandemic.
Shortly after getting engaged, she did what every modern bride-to-be does: research. And then, she had an epiphany: “We were so far from the wedding, I couldn’t believe I was already losing sleep over it,” she says. “It did not take long for me to realize the costs were just more than I could have imagined.”
Instead, she and her groom stood in front of a priest on an island in the middle of Baboosic Lake with a few onlookers idling in their pontoons while sipping champagne.
Actually, it wasn’t an island, she explains. “It was almost like a rock formation with two pine trees and a few blueberry bushes.” Nonetheless, it was a storybook setting. Her father ferried her and her husband-to-be in a wooden dory rowboat out to the patch of rock. There were no plated dinners or sparkler send-offs, but they did hire a photographer who captured stunning drone footage of
their vows.
Smaller is Better for Some
Stan Ovrevik co-owns the Rosewood Country Inn in Bradford with his wife Odo Barron. To lend an air of Old Hollywood glamor, he casually mentions that Charlie Chaplin and Gloria Swanson were once guests at this 1890s Victorian.
Post-COVID, Ovrevik notes, the decline in wedding size has been something of a blessing for the inn’s boutique appeal. “It’s good for us because we’re a smaller place,” he says. With 11 guest rooms, a commercial kitchen and a dining hall fit for 85, weddings at the Rosewood are typically a weekend affair with costs ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 for the food and rental space.
Invitees have two days to mingle and bond. That leads to the betrothed getting creative when entertaining guests. Ovrevik is game to help bring their ideas to life, whether it’s organizing a fishing trip, arranging a photo shoot with his collection of antique cars, or setting up a scavenger hunt. “Though,” he adds, “I did say no to the petting zoo.”
Isabella Farrell and her now-husband Shawn wanted their intimate party at the Rosewood to showcase their interests. To do so, they adorned their Moto Guzzi motorbikes with a veil and a bowtie respectively, making a stylish and personal entrance to the altar. Later, at dinner, they hosted a Legos competition with each table vying to build a “friend” for the alien Shawn built named Bob. “All the adults got wicked into it,” she says. “Everybody brought such good energy to it.”
Chic Style Goes Industrial
New Hampshire may be known for its mountain, waterfront, and barn-style weddings, but in its largest city industrial is the new chic. Enter The Venues at the Factory, a 7,000-square-foot event space redesigned from a historic brick mill once home to a renowned shoe factory.
Just a year old, the Manchester venue is nestled within the Factory at Willow—a vibrant mixed-use development featuring apartments, micro-hotel rentals, a distillery, and a lively food truck patio. The brainchild of real estate developers Liz Hitchcock and Amy Chhom, the complex bridges the heritage of industrial spaces with sleek mix-and-match furniture and modern touches.
Inside, whitewashed brick walls meet vertical greenery, while bistro lights, a speakeasy-style lounge and a flexible bar setup create a vibe that buzzes with possibility. The space was designed to morph from cozy gatherings to full-blown bashes for up to 250 guests.
For catering, it’s BYO-style. That means no food minimums. Hosts can bring in their favorite caterer, hire food trucks, or source meals from local restaurants. Weddings comprised about 30% of last year’s bookings, says The Venues at the Factory owner Marlana Trombley, who expects that number to grow as the venue gains traction. Prices listed on the venue’s website range from $4,900 to $11,400.
It’s All About the Guest Experience
Every couple has different needs, but one element remains constant, says Sam Sheehy, owner and wedding planner at The Perfect Match in Weare: “They really don’t want their wedding to be like every other wedding they went to.”
Sheehy specializes in what she calls “blank slate” weddings, transforming private residences or unconventional spaces into party venues. She supplies everything—tables, chairs, linens, decor—to customize a canvas.
“They [her clients] don’t want a stuffy sit-down dinner, a bouquet or garter toss, or a traditional cake cutting,” Sheehy says. “They want their wedding a little more out of the box.”
While McMurray of The Wedding Report suggests vendors adapt as couples increasingly opt for smaller celebrations, he still sees no end to extravagant affairs. “The people that have it are going to spend it regardless,” he acknowledges.
For Sheehy, the starting price for her services is $75,000 to $100,000. While some of her clients are local to NH, many are drawn to the Granite State as a destination.
And there are plenty of people in the state who can afford a pricey wedding. Based on the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the estimated median household income in NH for 2023 is $96,838, well above the national median of $80,610.
Sheehy describes one such extravaganza in June, which took two years to plan and cost more than $300,000. The bride kicked off her big day around dawn—before the hair and makeup session—by hitting the water for a waterskiing photo and video shoot. The stage for this plush affair was the historic John Hay estate in Newbury and the couple’s family home perched on one of Lake Sunapee’s 11 islands.
One of the more challenging logistics was the transportation, she explains. Sheehy had to arrange boats to ferry the vendors and the wedding party between the venue and the island throughout the day.
The couple’s blue-and-white wedding invitations featured a custom watercolor sketch of their island, a motif that reappeared on the bar front during cocktail hour. Around 200 guests mingled beside an antique buffet table adorned with a cascade of curated seasonal blooms—a lush floral theme that carried through to the aisle and dining tables. After the vows, a live Boston band packed the dance floor. As day turned to evening, a firework display illuminated a moonlit sky.
