Essen-Rüttenscheid.
For the first time since Corona, companies from Essen are presenting themselves at the wedding fair “Wedding Collective” in Rüttenscheid. This is what visitors can expect.
The small wedding fair “Wedding Collective” is back from the Corona break. Thirteen local companies from Essen will be presenting their products and services on Sunday, February 5, at Hudson’s (Girardetstraße 2) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The motto this year is “Individual and beautiful things for yes-men”, admission is free.
The concept of the event: Every offer and every service is only represented once. That means there’s a bridal shop, a men’s outfitter, a pastry shop, a florist, and so on. “We don’t want to be a mass event,” explains organizer Lars Bechmann from the Ruhr-Event agency, who organizes the wedding fair together with DJ Marc Nolte. The following sectors and companies are represented:
- DJ: DJ Marc Nolte
- Floristry: The flower
- Dancing: Tanzschule Am Stiftsplatz
- Photographer: Bildwerkeins
- Location: The coking plant
- Bridal fashions: Mydress
- Men’s outfitters: Wermter tailoring
- Confectionery: Konditorei Kötter
- Wedding speaker: Nina trusts you
- Music: Hannah Stienen
- Jewellery: Goldsmith Marris
- Wedding planning: butterflies in the stomach
- Ice cream truck: Sorelli’s
The “Wedding Collective” trade fair took place for the first time in 2018 in a photo studio in Rüttenscheid. At that time, only service providers from the district participated. “Experience shows that bridal couples usually don’t want to travel far to organize their wedding,” says Bechmann. This year companies from all over Essen are taking part, the bridal fashion business comes from Velbert.
The number of weddings in Essen fell during the corona pandemic
The wedding industry was badly hit during the Corona period. Big celebrations could not take place, many couples postponed their parties. According to the city of Essen, the number of weddings fell during the pandemic. While 2455 couples got married in 2019, in 2020 there were only 2188 and in 2021 only 2153 couples. Only in 2022 was the trend rising again with 2311. Bad times for bridal shops, wedding planners and wedding speakers.
Bechmann observes that the industry is now picking itself up again. “People want to go out again, meet and celebrate.” In his circle of friends and acquaintances, too, he has noticed that couples who have already postponed their wedding celebration once or twice are now starting the planning again. About half of the original service providers are still there this year, says Bechmann. But that’s not because the other half didn’t survive Corona.
200 visitors expected at the Rüttenscheid wedding fair
“Some are going to be back and maybe come back in the future, for others the format no longer suits them because weddings are no longer part of their core business,” says the organizer. In principle, many of the companies represented do not specialize exclusively in weddings – after all, Konditorei Kötter also sells its cakes quite regularly in the branch on Rüttenscheider Straße. With Hudson’s, the organizers Bechmann and Nolte hope to reach a broad, young audience and also to win walk-in customers for a spontaneous visit: “Hudson’s is not a typical wedding location, but it is well known and popular in the district.”
The organizers are expecting around 200 visitors. Bechmann estimates that it will certainly not be packed all day. This leaves time for a longer consultation. The “Wedding Collective” cannot and does not want to be compared with large wedding fairs like the one in the Grugahalle.
More information about the event is available on the website www.wedding-collective.deat Facebook (www.facebook.de/hochzeitsmesseessen and on Instagram (@dasweddingcollective).
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