Calm thinking and a positive attitude have enabled the top wedding planners to assess the best ways to deal with their clients’ needs right now, while there is still uncertainty about what lies ahead. Jill Eckersley talked to Sarah Hayward and Mark Niemierko
The wedding industry has always been forward-thinking. Weddings don’t just happen, and planning a wedding at any time takes months, even years of careful preparation.
According to US website poptheknot.com it can be anything from 13 to 18 months and in February 2019 the Independent newspaper reported that couples were spending 11 months in planning mode.
And then came coronavirus. High-end London-based wedding planners like Mark Niemierko and Sarah Haywood began to get anxious phone calls and emails in late February and early March from concerned clients wondering whether their dream weddings were going to have to be cancelled… or possibly postponed until the lockdown was lifted, whenever that might be…
“I began to hear that corporate events were being cancelled in February, although I don’t do corporate events myself,” says Mark. “Questions about weddings came later – just before the actual lockdown. It was in mid-March when Boris Johnson made his remark about the public having to face losing some of their loved ones to the virus. That was when more people began to take the situation seriously and we, as wedding planners, began to be affected.
“The Church of England announced that only five people could be present at a wedding – the vicar, the bride and groom and two witnesses. My immediate reaction was to offer free advice via social media to people who had already booked their wedding –whether or not they were working with a wedding planner – and to encourage them to postpone the wedding, rather than cancel every-thing and risk losing their deposit.”
Setting new dates
Sarah Haywood adds that thinking ahead was vital to keep her company afloat. “The moment Italy went into lockdown. we started checking available dates for 2021,” she says.
“Many of our clients are inter= national and we know that people are not going to be keen to travel because the virus will still be around, even when lockdown is over. On the positive side, we believe that 2021 will be really busy. People will still continue to get married, and we expect to be working with those of our clients who postponed from 2020, plus new clients as well.
We know the venues and suppliers we need to work with and we are now finding out whether they are going to be available in 2021. If we had waited until late April to plan, we would be in trouble!”
Mark Niemierko says that not just brides and grooms, but everyone in the trade, need to realise that the current situation will have an impact on weddings for some time to come, but that that fact need not mean total disaster.
“My main advice to everyone involved is to talk to each other. Communicate. Come up with fresh ideas,” he says. “This is an unprecedented situation but wedding planners learnt from the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when there were lots of new opportunities and start-ups by wedding planners.
“I was working with one couple whose wedding was arranged for the end of July and of course we couldn’t see it happening. Even if the Government and the medical experts were to say that restrictions could be relaxed by then, there are sure to be some guests who wouldn’t feel able to come – they might be in the ‘vulnerable’ category themselves, or feel that they risked passing the virus on to the other guests.
“So we, as planners, need to prepare for smaller weddings in the near future. I can’t see the industry returning to normal before Spring 2021 at the earliest. I don’t know any more about the medical issues than anyone else but I know ‘tests’ for the virus can take time to develop, and that’s not going to happen in weeks. We have to remember that if our businesses can survive this year there will be a ‘boom’ in weddings next year.
“I spoke last week to a bride who was in tears at having to rearrange things after planning her special day for two years.
“She and her groom had then decided to have a small civil wedding so they were legally married, and save the big celebrations for next year. Those of us in the wedding trade need to bear that in mind and think creatively during this ‘down time’. Maybe come up with new ways of selling our products and services such as at-home try-ons for dresses?
A different scale
“I can’t see large weddings happening this year. ‘Social distancing’ just isn’t possible when a father wants to walk his daughter down the aisle. Plus there’s so much emotion involved in a wedding, thinking of all the hugs and kisses and handshakes. But it won’t affect the wedding trade permanently, everyone will want to get back out there, just as they did after the 2008 crisis.
“A wedding is a major life event after all, which is why they are somewhat recession-proof. All those extended families and groups of friends will want to make a big effort, and hopefully there will be even bigger celebrations of joy and love next year when the crisis is over.”
Sarah Haywood says that none of her staff have been furloughed. She employs five people in her events team plus three support staff and says that they are all busy dealing with clients who need to postpone their weddings.
“We have had no actual cancellations,” she says. “I gave everyone really good options for what postponing would mean. We are in touch with venues, hotels, caterers, florists and photographers to find out what dates they have available for next year and whether all the consumables can be accessed and delivered to a different timescale. Everyone in the supply chain is affected so we have flowcharts in the office so that we know what can be done. If we don’t, we tell the clients that we will find out!
“Couples employ wedding planners to take the stress out of the operation, so juggling the various aspects of the day is down to us. The logo of my company is a swan and like a swan I seem serene on the surface but am paddling like hell underneath! Of course I have an amazing team working with me.
“What I would say is, if you are a wedding planner wondering how to survive this, take the opportunity to put your business in order. I don’t have a crystal ball but I expect to be here next year and ready to give clients what they want.
“This is an opportunity. I am not looking at growth for the business, just trying to ensure that I keep the clients I have and help them to postpone, and then pick up new ones next year as well.
“There’s a lot of tittle-tattle, especially online, about how terrible everything is for businesses, and that doesn’t help confidence. The big lesson I took from the 2008 crash was to make sure I had good reserves. I have invested heavily in my team and I wouldn’t want to lose them. It’s a rainy day right now, in fact it’s pouring, but I’m looking ahead!”
Both Mark and Sarah feel that destination weddings will inevitably take a hit – partly because of guests’ unwillingness to fly, and partly because the pandemic has been handled so differently by countries in different parts of the world.
“Each country seems to have different rules and people will remember that,” says Mark. “The World Health Organisation and the G20 countries don’t seem to have co-ordinated their responses well. For instance, I heard that Hong Kong has allowed restaurants to open but not serve any alcohol – so would that mean no Champagne at a Hong Kong wedding? UK couples may feel that it would be easier to move their wedding to a home venue as travelling would be simpler and less expensive for their guests.
“It might take until 2022 or 2023 for destination weddings to become popular once more.”
“It’s difficult to predict exactly what will happen,” agrees Sarah, “but the cost of travel will go up without a doubt and that will have an impact. There could be a positive side, though. Until now the wedding industry has not been especially well up on environmental issues but less travelling could mean that that will change. We are learning that our treatment of the planet and its resources really matters to young people.
“An increase in local weddings could mean that suppliers will be more likely to support local growers and food producers. More awareness could mean less waste of resources and new ways of design. We are all having to think more carefully because we don’t know exactly what will be available, or what might become prohibitively expensive.
“Weddings are wonderful occasions that everyone loves and that will not change. The business of love is alive and well and ceremonies will become even more meaningful after what has happened this year.”
1 comment
Nice article, and great to read this and well said about the planning information in this covid-19 situation. And also you said about how you manage small marriages in this covid situation. Well, great stuff.