TBH, it seemed such an obvious point you're making that I assumed the author had to be comparing inflation-adjusted dollars, but from the (very little) digging that I did, it looks like that's not the case.
I would assume that downward trend has continued as inflation has spiked in the past few years and people had to spend more of their money in other areas.
In fact, weddings decreased in inflation-adjusted cost between 1990 and 2023: https://ktvz.com/stacker-lifestyle/2024/03/01/how-us-wedding...
I would assume that downward trend has continued as inflation has spiked in the past few years and people had to spend more of their money in other areas.