COVID Weddings Fall and Winter 2020
Back in July, we talked about COVID-19 and the upcoming fall season.
Well, it’s Fall of 2020 and the COVID case numbers are increasing and that has an effect on the wedding industry as a whole.
If you remember, back in March, April and May, many couples pushed their weddings to new dates, some in the fall of this year, but most to those same months into 2021.
And that creates a couple of issues.
Today, were going to chat a bit more about the increase in COVID-19 cases, how the wedding industry is handling it and how you as a couple can best weather that storm.
Wedding During COVID-19 are ‘Super-Spreader’ Events
Yes, to an extent, weddings have been all over the news lately with lots of people getting the corona-virus.
Here are a few recent news examples:
Now, don’t get me wrong, not all weddings are these ‘super-spreader’ events, but you do need to take things into consideration and we’ll chat about that in a bit. But, when you compare the number of weddings that have taken place this year, you see a huge dip in the spring and to some extent, you see a smaller dip in November into December of this year.
Weddings 2020 vs 2019
Should You have the Wedding, Cancel it or Delay it during COVID-19?
If you are having a Fall 2020 or Winter 2020/2021 wedding, then you need to consider one of three options for the wedding day, keep it but alter the day, cancel it or delay it. The answer to that question lays within each couple, as each couple is different, with religious or financial reasons, sometimes family reasons.
Keeping the Wedding Day
If you decide to keep the wedding during this unusual time, then you need to think about how best to change it to your areas restriction’s and think about the guests.
Some couples will trim down the guest list to the max number within each state. Here in Virginia, that number currently is 25, in North Carolina, that number is under 100 or 30% capacity.
Decide on things like spacing out the guests for the ceremony, limit dancing at the reception and limit contract with others. Reversing the guest list may be a difficult thing emotionally, but it will need to be done
Make sure guests have face masks, have plenty of hand sanitizer for everyone throughout the day and make sure the reception tables and chairs are spaced out correctly
This means you may also need to eliminate things like the exit, garter and bouquet toss, things where gatherings of groups will happen
One tip I can give you is ask your videographer about a live stream. We for example, have been offering live stream for free this year and part of next year too for the ceremony.
Canceling the Wedding Day
You can opt to cancel the wedding day because of COVID, although it will cost you. If you cancel the day, don’t expect to get a lot of refunds back as many contracts are designed in a way where if you cancel, you get nothing back. My advice, check your contracts.
One alternative to consider is re-selling your contract to another couple with the same date. Some vendors will do this, so ask. You may get some of your money back by reselling it at a discount.
Depending on when you cancel, your guests may or may not be hit with some financial things too. Maybe the booked a room and paid for it maybe they bought a flight or they purchased a gift for you. Either way, you need to think about how cancelling with effect your guests.
Of the three choices, we do not recommend doing this. You can also read more on wedding cancellations on Brides.com.
Delaying the Wedding Day
Most couples faced with restrictions this year have opted to reschedule the wedding day.
In the Spring, it was fairly easy, but during the Fall and Winter of 2020, it’s become far more difficult to change it to the Spring of 2021. As we’ve indicated before, couples from the 1st major wave of COVID-19 pushed their wedding dates into 2021 and they took most of the prime dates already, so if you delay it, you’ll find it a lot harder for your vendors and venue to be on board with everything.
For those that pushed the wedding date to the fall have found it somewhat better, although many of those couples are rescheduling for a second time, which is hurting them in the pocketbook. We’re finding a lot more vendors charging rescheduling fees this time around and for good reason.
One thing that couples have been doing however, is having an extremely small ceremony, then have a mock wedding and reception later
The Wedding Industry Impact of COVID-19
We been researching others within the wedding industry and it’s been a crusher for those that rely on weddings as their sole income. In fact, the spring alone, vendors saw a dramatic drop in weddings, bookings and income.
Those that had to refund money to the couples found themselves in even worse situations where the company had no choice but to close because they could return the deposits to all that rescheduled.
Think of it this way.
As a small business, having 30-40% of your clients ask for a refund at the same time is financially unviable. If the deposit for example was $1,500 each and you had 10 clients asking for their money back, that small business would have to fork out $15,000, which most will not have.
Wedding Businesses during COVID-19
While cancelling is not as bad currently, it has still happened to some this Fall.
Many small businesses have shutdown because of the lack of work and the lack of income. For those that have survived will see an overworked 2021, although they will not see bigger profits in 2021 because of the 2020 couples overlap.
As a couple, the hardest thing they will face is trying to secure a date as now they are competing man more couples.
Percentage of 2020 couples vs 2021 couples
What are the BEST practices for weddings during COVID-19?
As wedding professionals, we have come up with a few things that you need to do should you decide to have the wedding while the COVID numbers are still increasing in the United States.
First, face masks. We all hate them, but we all need them.
Make sure that you’re wedding guests, bridal party and even you and your spouse have them and use them.
Exceptions to this is during certain parts of the wedding ceremony, photos and dinner.
Second, offer hand sanitizer to people, lots of it.
Have baskets with small travel sized one people can take and use or have sanitization stations that you provide for them as well.
Next, we recommend that you space out your guests at the ceremony and the reception. Physically group chairs into smaller clusters for families, 3-4 and a few with just two for couples without children.
Limit things like the dancing, dinner service if it’s a buffet and things like the garter/bouquet toss.
Consider shaving the day and making things more condensed, so instead of extending the wedding to 10 pm, maybe have an early day where everyone can go home at 8 pm.
Finally, limit alcohol.
The more your guests drink, the less they will think about COVID and the more likely you may contract it if dancing on the floor with a bunch of others that have had too many drinks.
