"Fully Booked 1.5 Years in Advance... Wedding Venues Also Require Waiting Numbers Due to Open-Run"

Marriage Reservations Made 1 Year and 6 Months in Advance
Phenomenon Arising After Mass Disappearance of Wedding Halls
Public Wedding Venues Need Infrastructure Enhancement

Im Hee-jung (32), a bride-to-be preparing for her wedding in November next year, recently attempted to book a wedding hall in Seoul with her fianc? but failed. On the day the reservation window opened at 9 a.m., she mobilized her friends and a wedding planner to try calling, but only heard busy signals and eventually received waiting number 7 after 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Im said, "Among the wedding halls in Seoul, this place is relatively affordable for meals and famous for its delicious food," adding, "I heard last year the waiting numbers barely moved, so I guess we have to look for other options."

A soon-to-be newlywed couple is taking photos. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

According to industry sources on the 6th, some popular wedding halls in Seoul are fully booked a year in advance, with waiting lists in place. Especially for Saturdays during lunch hours from September to November, when wedding demand is high, reservations have been filling up quietly through wedding planners since as early as a year and a half ago, officials explained.

Choi, a planner working at a wedding company, said, "Among planners, the popular wedding halls recommended to couples are usually limited to 2 to 3 per region," adding, "Typically, wedding halls accept reservations starting one year before the wedding, but in these cases, wedding planners sometimes secure reservation rights in advance through consultation managers."

Given this situation, couples-to-be are obtaining waiting numbers simultaneously at 3 to 4 popular wedding halls while trying to book other venues. On famous wedding community sites, posts about transferring reservations for popular wedding halls are actively shared. Lee, a consultation manager at a wedding hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, said, "Since there is no other place in the Gangnam area that offers such reasonable prices relative to meal quality, the phone lines become jammed on the day reservations open," adding, "Except for the Lunar New Year holidays and year-end, reservations are fully booked from January through December."

Statistically, the number of marriages, which stagnated during the COVID-19 period, is gradually increasing following the easing of social distancing measures. According to the '2023 Marriage and Divorce Statistics' released by Statistics Korea, the number of marriages last year was 194,000, a 1.0% increase from 192,000 in 2022. This marks the first rise in 11 years since 2012.

Experts analyze that the sharp decline in marriages during the COVID-19 period led to the disappearance of many wedding halls, and with the recent increase in marriage rates, a supply shortage has emerged. They also emphasize the need for government-level expansion of supply, given the lack of reasonably priced wedding halls in this era of high inflation and high interest rates. Although Seoul City has been implementing a 'public wedding hall' system since last year, offering public facilities such as public museums and exhibition halls free of charge for weddings, interest among couples-to-be is low due to limited capacity and inconvenient transportation.

Professor Lee Young-ae of the Department of Consumer Studies at Incheon University explained, "It's not that the marriage rate has increased significantly, but many hotels closed and wedding halls disappeared during the COVID-19 period, so there are not enough venues to invite as many guests as before," adding, "As a result, competition for the remaining wedding halls is fierce, and demand concentrates on places that are even slightly better in terms of price or quality."

She continued, "The intention behind the government's public wedding hall system is good, but considering that many families in the generation close to marriage age have one or two children, it would be difficult to accept the low quality of such an important event as a wedding," adding, "Not only the quality of the wedding halls but also various convenience facilities such as guest capacity and transportation need to be improved, and support should be provided as a package including 'Seudeume' (studio, dress, makeup) to achieve practical policy effects."