YAHOO! NEWS — April 20 — The $60 billion-a-year wedding industry is hurting as much as the rest of the economy, according to a recent Bloomberg article. And with couples spending an average of 24% less on tying the knot than in '07, they are scaling back on everything from the number of guests to meal selections to flowers. According to a recent article in Yahoo! Finance, 37% of matrimonial lawyers report seeing a decrease in divorcing couples during economic downturns. The reason, the article posits, is because getting a divorce is the "worst thing you can do financially." So maybe the frugal thing to do these days is just stay single? Not so fast. The Economist and CNN are both reporting that matchmakers and online dating websites like eHarmony.com and OKCupid.com are prospering during the recession. eHarmony reports a 20% increase in monthly registrations from September 2008 to January 2009, and even Harlequin Enterprises, the world's leading publisher of romance fiction, reported that fourth-quarter earnings were up 32% over the same period the year before. Love is in the air, in one form or another.
The full article was originally published at Yahoo! News, but is no longer available.
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