A list of wedding dates for 2022 hangs on the wall of Pot of Green Florist in the shopping plaza adjacent to the Stonington police station, starting with one this past January and ending in late October. It's not normal for owner Judy Mann to be doing flowers for a January wedding, and that came right after one on New Year's Eve.

"I've had more weddings this year than I've ever had before," Mann said. One thing she's found is young people getting married may not have as much money to spend, since while postponing marriage they bought a house or had a baby.

It's a far cry from the lack of weddings earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, though Mann said business was generally better for her shop, which opened in 1973: While there weren't weddings or funerals, people also weren't traveling to see friends or family, so they would call Pot of Green to deliver flowers.

In this regard, Mann was in a different spot from businesses that primarily focus on weddings, or banquet halls that had to adjust to severe capacity restrictions. But now, vendors and venues agree that business is booming — though they're also dealing with supply chain issues and labor shortages.

On the website for StoneHurst at Hampton Valley, a message pops up: "Please understand that this wedding season is jam packed because of the backups from last year's COVID postponements. Because of this, it may take a little longer for us to get back to you than it has before. We appreciate your understanding and patience."

The Meadows in Stonington doesn't get going with hosting weddings until May but owner Ian Camfield expects a busy season ahead. He added, "I'm not sure what's going to happen to the cost of food, I don't know what's going to happen to the availability of labor."

The wedding website The Knot expects 2.6 million weddings in the U.S. this year, compared to an average of 2.2 million per year before the pandemic.

"It is off-the-charts, crazy busy," wedding planner Debbie White-Palmer said. "It is a domino effect of people who had to put off their weddings, or who got married but didn't get to celebrate so now they're having their celebrations. So, my calendar is very busy, with all types of weddings, from traditional hotel ballrooms to backyard weddings."

Her challenge at this point is juggling the 2022 wedding season with inquiries for future weddings. White-Palmer, who has been a wedding planner for 22 years, has more weddings on the books for next year than she normally would at this point in the year.

She has found that the size of weddings is smaller. Couples getting married now may have been part of a wedding that was forced to scale down due to capacity restrictions earlier in the pandemic but found they liked the more intimate experience.

"That's been really fun for me, because it's much easier for me to get down to the nitty gritty, special details when there's only 40 or 50 guests," White-Palmer said. She added that whether the wedding has 40 people or 250, "you still need a cake, you still need music, you still need flowers," so her job hasn't changed much.

Kirsten Nicholas of Love Me Forever Bridal said she still had couples getting married earlier in the pandemic, but the weddings tended to be backyard ones or small civil ceremonies.

"The wedding industry is always busy," Nicholas said. "People are going to get married no matter what's going on in the world, but last year and this year, because of all the shifting in securing their venues with dates, it's just increased the amount of traffic."

Like White-Palmer and Nicholas, Elizabeth Campbell of Alterations by Elizabeth in Groton saw that some people got married legally earlier in the pandemic but are just now having their party. She estimates her business in dresses for weddings is up about 35% to 50% from what it was at this time of year before the pandemic.

A few weeks ago, in just a day, she went from a half-rack to two racks of clothes to work on. That's also because another season is approaching: Prom season.

High costs on flour and fabrics

"Our number of weddings and inquiries are unprecedented, for sure," said Gabriella Withrow, owner of Zest Fresh Pastry in Stonington, where about a third of the business is wedding cakes and desserts. "I think it's a number of things. Last year was one of our record years, and that was due to postponements."

But this year, she said it's more organic, that the "pandemic showed people that life is short and there's no time like now."

Unlike White-Palmer, she's seeing a trend of larger weddings, some of the biggest she's seen. According to The Knot, the average guest size fell from 131 in 2019 to 66 in 2021 but rose to 105 last year, and is projected to be back up at 129 this year.

With larger weddings, Withrow doesn't expect to be making many of the larger three-tiered cakes, but rather a smaller cake for display and a backup one for the guests.

Lisa Argilagos of You Take the Cake in New London found that last year was more about cupcakes than cutting a cake, and now people have different dessert focal points than the big white cake, such as an ice cream bar or candy bar.

She's seen a lot of interest in weddings but is running into a cost issue: With skyrocketing prices on ingredients including eggs, butter, flour and sugar, she's "pretty much breaking even" on cakes, considering the cost to make a cake is up about 35% from when clients booked and locked in their price.

Argilagos has since raised her prices, but she said every time she raises her prices, so do her suppliers.

At the Waterford-based EZ-Occasions, which provides custom lighting designs and draping installations, owner Karina Alvarez has found that fabric prices have gone up significantly. The fabric she gets from her California-based supplier comes from China, so shipping fees have gone up, and she has to wait longer to get orders. She also can't find people for the part-time, seasonal work she needs.

In 2020, Alvarez had only 10 weddings, but was aided by a Paycheck Protection Program loan and having another job, working as a translator for the government. But last year was busy, including with last-minute weddings, and she already has about 52 weddings booked for this season — with more expected.

She said about a quarter of the weddings this year are ones that were rebooked due to COVID-19 but the rest are happening on their original date.

"We've seen a really, really good comeback," she said, "and we're all excited."

e.moser@theday.com