Since establishing as a wedding venue after converting the derelict barn on the farm in 2012 and the gin-gang in 2018, the business has gone from strength to strength.
That is until 2020 happened with a global
pandemic damaging lives and the economy,
changing how we do everything. Here, she
talks about the detrimental effect it has had
on the ‘forgotten’ wedding industry.
As Coronavirus (Covid-19) is at its second peak
and endured two lockdowns this year in the UK,
the wedding industry seems to have taken one of
the biggest hits financially as brides and groomsto-be are postponing or even cancelling their
weddings.
Not only did couples all across the UK have to cut
their guest list back to 30 in line with Covid-19
Government restrictions but then the Prime
Minister announced in September that only 15
people were now allowed to attend weddings and
these restrictions would potentially be in place
for six months.
This has not just caused heart break for our
couples who have booked with us who see no
other option but to postpone and potentially not
get the date they want in an already crammed
2021 or 2022, but has dealt a devastating blow to
so many independent wedding venues as well as
suppliers. With no support.
Wedding insurances have decided they won’t pay
out for a pandemic like this. So there is no real
choice but to postpone the weddings and most
moralistic venues have been accommodating this
at no extra charge. This also poses a knock-on
effect financially for us as a business as by doing
this we are restricted in taking any new bookings,
as well as if a wedding is postponed to a later
date then those part-payments are also delayed.
Because the Government has said we can
physically go ahead withweddings of 15 (including
the couple), they have not deemed us as being
‘closed’ therefore will not help us financially.
However 15 is not a meaningful or viable number,
and most couples do not want to go ahead with
only 13 guests so we are left to pick up the pieces
again causing more heartbreak and fall out. It falls
entirely on our shoulders as an industry to deal
with this, negotiate with each couple and eat into
future dates to accommodate our couples so they
can have the weddings they had planned.
According to surveys by wedding planning app
Bridebook, the average wedding spend in 2019
was approximately £16k per couple, which
equates to around £4.5b in direct spend revenue
based on the most popular season of between
April and September – of which we have for
the most part been in lockdown or massively
restricted. And with 139k independent businesses
involved in the wedding sector in the UK alone,
that’s a lot of people’s livelihoods affected!
This poses a further threat in risking more
cancellation of weddings if venues and companies
cannot cope with the losses and are being allowed
to head towards collapse. The wedding industry
has fallen through the gaps and we are falling fast.
Until the Government comes forward with an
urgent plan to rescue the industry, as venue
owners the only thing we can do to resolve this
deadlock is to keep fighting for autonomy to set
Covid-safe wedding numbers based on capacity
and individual venue layouts. If restaurants can
do this to save jobs and livelihoods, then the
wedding industry must too if we are to bounce
back once restrictions are lifted or I fear there will
be no industry left.
We do not benefit from the hospitality VAT
reduction nor could we for the Eat Out to Help
Out scheme and business interruption insurances
will not pay out for these losses.
So until we get autonomy or it is allowed for
couples to celebrate their special day how they
want it, all we can do is support them by agreeing
voluntary arrangements which work well for both
parties.
And pray we all come out of this on the other
side.