A new wedding magazine aimed at men promises to take the stress out of making speeches, organising stag nights and buying engagement rings.
The 132-page Stag & Groom targets bridegrooms, ushers and the best man. It promises to offer tips on everything from the pitfalls of giving speeches to advice on buying a diamond ring, as well as suggestions for honeymoon and stag nights, venues and cars to hire. It also includes a 20-page fashion section by former GQ fashion director Nick Sullivan.
Founder and publisher Chris Hanage, of Hanage Publishing, said there was a wide choice of wedding titles for women but none aimed directly at men.
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“Men will not pick up a magazine about wedding dresses and confetti, but there is a huge amount of the wedding that men are responsible for – speeches, the honeymoon and so on. I wondered whether we could tie those elements in with the stag elements and create a men’s wedding magazine,” he told Press Gazette.
“I don’t think men are going to sit around wondering whether their cummerbund should be tangerine or mauve. We are aimed at men who are very busy. They have to write speeches and they have to organise a fantastic honeymoon. You are never going to buy Stag & Groom as opposed to What Car? but you will buy it when you are getting married or if you’re an usher or the best man.”
The title features a 12-page speeches “toolkit” with witty one-liners and advice on what to avoid.
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“Speeches are the one thing men get worked up about. They find them very, very scary,” Hanage said.
According to the magazine, there are an estimated 180,000 first marriages in the UK a year – with weddings costing an average of £12,000. Despite four in 10 marriages ending in divorce, 80 per cent of divorced people remarry within three to four years.
Although Stag & Groom is aimed at professional men in their late 20s to late 30s, Hanage hopes the title will also be bought by brides-to-be in a bid to get their other halves involved in the preparations.
Dominic Bliss, a former GQ freelance and editor of tennis title Ace, is editor. Perdy Patterson, former editor of What Mobile?, is founding editor and Nick Hutchin, a former deputy editor of Ski & Board, has joined the team as deputy.
Stag & Groom will be published bimonthly with a cover price of £4 and a print run of 50,000.
By Ruth Addicott
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