By Chavie Lieber

Kelly Elizabeth planned on dazzling guests at her Newport, R.I., wedding with wines from France and Italy that matched each person's preference. She was narrowing in on European vendors when her fantasy was shattered by an uninvited guest: President Trump, who in April announced a 20% duty on European imports.

While most of Trump's tariffs have been put on pause, so have Elizabeth's dreams of Bordeaux and Chianti.

"When you hear about these tariffs, you want to evaluate everything," said the 30-year-old, who works in corporate communications.

Brides are buckling under the uncertainty over tariffs, which are threatening to push costs to new heights as wedding season kicks off. They are panic-buying candles and speed-ordering wedding dresses. They are downgrading from roses to carnations, cutting back on party favors and ditching the professional videographer for a guy with a smartphone.

In Elizabeth's case, the European wines were scrapped for American ones. She nixed the personalized T-shirts she'd hoped to give guests and will hand out cookies instead. She bulk-ordered napkins and tablecloths and found other ways to cut her "tablescape" budget.

"I'm a design-heavy bride, but I figured I don't need to order 200 wicker chargers," said Elizabeth.

For some brides who set budgets before April, the tariff announcements pushed their big day from expensive to out of reach. "I honestly was freaking out," said Marissa Da Silva, a 31-year-old in Stevensville, Md., who is getting married in September.

"It kind of stings at the end of the day, because I've been saving money, and this is my special moment," said Da Silva. "Things I budgeted for might not be attainable."

Though a 90-day pause on many of the planned tariffs has blunted the impact, brides say vendors have raised prices on everything from linens to dresses in response to new and anticipated levies.

Brides are taking to social media to share tales of woe. In one Reddit wedding forum, a woman shared that the custom-made gown she ordered over a year ago was suddenly $1,500 more expensive, after her designer cited tariff-related production charges. Pashion footwear, a popular shoe company for brides, began adding a roughly $60 U.S. import tariff tax to its shoes in May.

Some wedding boutiques are raising bridal gown prices 10% to 30%, said Sandra Gonzalez, vice president of the National Bridal Retailers Association, a trade organization. About 90% of dresses are manufactured in China, she said. Gonzalez, who also owns a bridal boutique, said her industry has been on a letter-writing campaign, "hoping the Trump administration supports weddings and brides and puts us on an exemption list."

Cindy Nguyen, a 28-year-old lash artist in Baltimore, isn't getting married until October 2026. But she is already stocking up. There are 48 tea light candle holders, 84 bud vases, 72 votive candles, 100 vellum jackets and 25 yards of chiffon silk ribbons stashed in her closet or at her mom's house in Texas. She also ordered her dress in early March -- a year and a half before her ceremony.

"I'm pinching pennies where I can without sacrificing the vision," Nguyen said. Her florist told her prices are going up 15%. That meant a giant flower arch Nguyen wanted will be replaced by flowers in vases, standing on pedestals. Nguyen also traded down from a videographer to a content creator, who shoots on a smartphone instead of a professional camera and charges less than half.

The current 10% tariff on all imported goods, along with rising shipping costs, led florists like Alison Fleck to raise prices. Fleck, whose wedding floristry business, Bloom Culture, is in Oklahoma City, said she's now giving couples quotes that are 10% to 20% higher.

"People look at me like I'm insane when they see the prices, but I tell them it's what I'm paying, too," said Fleck. "The carnation is now the cost of a rose, the rose is now the cost of a garden rose."

Raul Àvila, a luxury event designer who does events like the Met Gala, said tariffs were forcing him to get creative with cheap flowers for wedding contracts he's already signed.

"We'll use carnations, little flowers like lace, or baby's breath," Àvila said. "I make them look nicer by spray painting it a different color or opening it more. It's like seeing a Prada sweater and then running to Old Navy."

Olivia Sever, a 28-year-old content creator in San Diego, is getting married in Hawaii in September. Her stationer notified her that cotton paper prices are rising by 10% in May. The increase will affect her menus and placecards; her wedding planner warned that small details like candles are going to be much costlier, too.

"We're already over our projected budget," Sever said. "I guess I'm going to have to suck it up."

Josh Spiegel, the founder and chief creative officer of luxury events firm Birch Event Design, said his business is evaluating whether to raise prices 10% starting with fall and winter weddings to keep up with the tariffs. Table linens that once cost $60 to $100 are now $90 to $140, he said, and prices for custom chairs he orders from overseas have gone up 40%.

"Furniture is a big problem," Spiegel said. "Every bride wants their event to be unique, they don't want to see the same chair in images as 50 other weddings. But now the cost is so much higher."

After getting quotes from florists for her wedding, Jordan Smith, a 28-year-old social worker in Chicago getting married in May 2026, said she's going to do her own flowers with stems from Trader Joe's or Costco. She plans to buy vases and other decor at thrift shops, and joked that tariffs were going to make weddings feel like "the millennial garbagecore of 2014."

"The last time we were in a recession, you saw Mason jars, milk crates, and spray-painted wine bottles with twine," Smith said. "Everyone is going to be thrifting for their weddings."

Write to Chavie Lieber at Chavie.Lieber@WSJ.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 05, 2025 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)

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