SAN DIEGO, Calif. — It's not you; it's them. 

Wedding vendors nationwide are finding new ways to survive a slow season.

Crafting beautiful bouquets is a special calling for Natalie Blooms.

"I really love that their beauty is so fleeting. It's very poetic to me," she said. 

Blooms is a luxury florist in San Diego, and while her flowers keep blooming, her business has not kept growing. 

She said she booked 50% fewer weddings this year than last.

According to The Wedding Report, a research company that tracks wedding data, U.S. weddings soared to a 25-year high in 2022. 

Now, nearly 17% fewer weddings are expected just two years after those highs.

"We have taken a lot less weddings and we're doing projects and collaborations with other businesses now because wedding bookings have slowed down," Blooms said. "Of course, we always will have the big, lux weddings, and we do have some of those still, but the average wedding has definitely scaled back a lot."

Talia Gonzalez is the founder of Terra Coast Events. She believes the dip in nuptials is partially to blame on the pandemic: potential couples weren't connecting, staying inside instead of going on dates.

"The average relationship is about three-and-a-half years from that first date to engagement, to then about six to nine months to a year of planning that wedding; that whole gap brings us right to 2024 when everyone was at home and wasn't meeting each other and so we're feeling the effects of that now," Gonzalez said. 

Gonzalez said she expanded her staff to handle 90 weddings but estimates they'll handle closer to 65 this year. 

Her company has taken on corporate events and styled shoots to help replace the fewer weddings this year. 

Despite the slower year, she's confident things will level out over the next wedding season. 

She also predicts destination weddings will become more popular as couples look to cut costs and keep things intimate and intentional.

"Our fall 2025 is very, very full," Gonzalez said. "Our spring's a little light, so it's that fall 2024 and spring 2025 that I feel like is feeling the most of this wedding gap. And then we're going to be right back in it with people that have started dating post-COVID."

Blooms also believes the rising cost of everything has reduced the number of weddings. She's diversified her business by setting up flower carts and selling bouquets in grocery stores.

According to the Wedding Report, the average cost of a wedding broke $30,000 for the first time in 2023. This year, they forecast the number of weddings will be down, but spending will be up, mostly due to inflation. They project the average wedding to cost more than $32,000.

Just like the fleeting beauty of a flower, Blooms believes this slump will pass, too.

"Anyway, the pendulum swings; it's going to swing back the other way," she said. "So we're going to use everything that we've learned during this year and figure out how to adapt again next year to whatever challenges those bring."

Blooms says she has started a "blooms box" where she delivers wedding flowers to couples who can assemble the arrangements themselves, cutting out the labor cost while still having stunning flowers for their wedding.