It’s officially wedding season here in the northern hemisphere, and, as with every year, that means millions of dollars pouring through a plethora of wedding-related industries: everything from formal wear to fancy cakes, manicures to mannequins, dancing shoes to Dom Perignon, and obviously so much more.

But what about 2009 in particular? What about in – dun-dun-dun! — today’s economy?

Browsing some of the wedding-related categories on Terapeak, we were somewhat surprised by the patterns we found — namely the fact that many of these categories appear to be trending up. Of course, it’s not as if we expected engaged parties to suddenly close the checkbook on perhaps the most important day of their lives… but why is it that these folks are turning to eBay for their big-day needs? Could it be that, in fact, they are saving a few bucks by doing their shopping and prep-work online? In any case, sellers tied to any of the following categories can’t be complaining…

Check out this two-year Total Sales trend for Wedding Invitations:

And this two-year Total Sales trend for Bridal Accessories:

And one more, this two-year Total Sold Listings trend for Engagement/Wedding Ring Sets:

As for the wedding industry as a whole, we can’t stress enough how truly expansive it is. Try doing a Terapeak category search for “wedding” and see how many relevant results come up. Believe us, there’s a ton — and those are only the obvious ones! If you can get creative and tailor other categories to suit wedding needs, you’ll be reaping the rewards all summer long.