Leisure

Dearly Beloved, We Can’t Gather Here Today...

Issue 64

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.

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