2011: The Year of the Groom

When you think of weddings the chances are that the first image that comes to mind is of a happy bride and the traditional long white dress. In 2011 the UK's leading men’s wedding website Staggered (www.iamstaggered.com) is asking wedding companies to look beyond this image and celebrate 2011 as the Year of the Groom.

"We are absolutely not saying that the wedding is no longer the bride’s big day, or that men are more important – we know how dangerous that would be!” explains Staggered editor Andrew Shanahan. “What we want wedding companies to do is accept that a wedding should be a celebration of the couple and that obviously includes both brides and grooms. Unfortunately, the feedback from our readers is that grooms are still seen as a bit of an irrelevance by some suppliers."

Although some grooms may have been given a rough ride – with an iknow survey showing that 47 per cent of grooms have had to battle for inclusion in the wedding plans - many forward-thinking wedding businesses are already accepting that grooms are playing a greater part in the wedding planning process. Perhaps inspired by programmes like BBC3's Don’t Tell The Bride, they are even beginning to see the emergence of the wedding-obsessed Groomzillas.

"There's two simple reasons why men are more involved in weddings," says Shanahan. "The first is that 71 per cent of couples now pay for a wedding themselves, which will cost an average £18,605 in 2011. Grooms spending that much money want a more active role in deciding how it’s spent. Secondly, men are more comfortable with what planning a wedding entails now they have a much higher profile. They have seen that, yes, there are some very girly aspects but things like planning food, drink, entertainment, photography, gifts, guestlists, transport, suits and honeymoons are all very much things men can be involved in."

One observation that creates the impression that grooms are less interested is that business are more likely to see the bride when it comes to meetings. However, a recent survey of over 600 brides and grooms found that 61 per cent of grooms research and book services online – emphasising how important it is to target them on the web - and only 7 per cent opt for face-to-face contact with suppliers. So even if you never see them the grooms are there - deciding where the wedding budget is spent.

For the Year of The Groom Staggered are asking wedding companies to look at their own activities and use 2011 as an opportunity to ask themselves if they are doing everything they can to make the groom involved and welcomed. To encourage this they are offering a challenge to wedding businesses: try marketing yourself to grooms, best men and fathers of the bride in 2011 and see how much more business you can get.

To back up their challenge they are making a special offer – wedding businesses can get two adverts that will feature on the Staggered website and in the ground-breaking 2011 Staggered Directory for the whole year, for less than £40.

For more information visit http://www.iamstaggered.com/thebigday/2011-the-year-of-the-groom-challenge to read about what you can get for your £40 and how easy it is to try it out.

If you would like further information then contact info@iamstaggered.com or call 01477 534 689.

Notes for editors

- Andrew Shanahan is available for comment and interview – andrew@iamstaggered.com or call 07792 017766.

- Predicted cost of a wedding in 2011 is £18,605 in 2011 according to UK Wedding Belles.

- Groom survey from iKnow, March 2010

- 71% of couples paying for their own wedding statistic from Wedding Magazine poll.