What a disaster 2020 has been so far!
I don’t know about all of you but I am exhausted. Exhausted because this year has been a whirl wind of absolute craziness and heightened emotions. Nobody saw covid coming and it has been one destructive pandemic. Covid has taken things about our daily lives and made them so much more difficult. Covid means that I now have to wear a mask everywhere I go for the health and safety of myself and others. I do not mind wearing the mask for safety at all, but I hate that my face gets so hot and sweaty while wearing it and it has broken out into 12 millions blemishes. Covid has also changed the way that we eat out at restaurants, the way we shop, the ways in which jobs and businesses are operating and it has even caused such a variety of mental health issues due to the quarantine. It has been too much to handle this year and I can say with 100% positivity that every single person is just exhausted of this dang pandemic!
By the way, don’t mind my strangely hairy eyebrows. I haven’t been able to go anywhere to get them done and I also can’t keep up with the speedy quick growth. Covid is out here making us all look like huge messes! Oh and ummm…has anybody else been drinking about an entire bottle of wine every day? Nope. Just me? Cool!
Anyways…
Not only has covid-19 affected my personal life, but also my professional life. 2020 has been an extremely difficult year for me as an Event Coordinator. I have witnessed my clients, who I care about deeply, go through heartbreak, sadness, and sorrow at the fact that their dream was torn away from them. They had been planning their wedding day for months or sometimes even years and then all of a sudden they weren’t allowed to have a group of people larger than 10. Obviously most weddings have well over 10 people so this was a huge shock to all and many had to quickly change plans.
When I first heard about the shelter in place, I was confused and my mind was going 5 million miles per hour. I had no answers for the couples who, of course, simply wanted to know if their wedding was still going to be able to happen. I was essentially waiting on the state to release the information about what size group gatherings could be and once the information was released, it was constantly changing.
First, you could only have 10 people, then you can have 25 people but there is a list of 27 rules and regulations and oh…now you can have 60 people but there can be absolutely no fun allowed at this event.
I do understand that we had to go in stages in order to safely reopen, however, the state didn’t have a great plan in place so they were all over the board with the rules and changes. This was not what my clients wanted to hear and these changes were immensely difficult for them. In the end, I completely understand why most of the couples were overwhelmed and felt defeated. I was there to talk to them and comfort them, I listened over the phone as a few of them cried, and I tried to help find solutions so that they could have the day they had always dreamed of. I had to find a way to make these couples feel somewhat better!!
How did we get through it?
I decided to work with each individual couple as much as I could to come up with a solution that would work best for them. Some couples still really wanted to get married and weren’t willing to wait so we came up with a direct solution that would benefit their situation. I did some intimate socially distanced ceremonies, I moved some wedding dates to later in the year, and some just wanted to do more of a backyard wedding. I truly just wanted them to do what was in their best interest. With as much stress and torture as they had already been through, I definitely did not want to make it worse.
There were also some couples who wanted to be able to have that dream wedding they had always envisioned. They couldn’t see changing the vision of their fairytale day, and I completely understand that, so we generally moved their wedding to 2021 and everything else just transferred over including orders, pricing, etc. It is unfortunate that they now have to wait a year or more, however they will get the wedding they have always envisioned and it will be perfect! Hopefully social distance and masks won’t be required by that time next year..
I did unfortunately have some issues when moving weddings to later dates in 2020. The rules and numbers for gatherings didn’t change as much as we originally thought they would back in March because covid wasn’t getting better. A lot of the couples ended up still having to move their wedding yet again or even cancel because they had already moved the date and rebooked their vendors once. It was just becoming too much for them to handle. I also had some people cancel for extenuating circumstances. I had couples who were moving out of the state and didn’t want to plan a wedding from that far away and I had multiple brides become pregnant and cancelled because they needed to focus on starting their family. Each situation was so different that I couldn’t handle any of them alike.
Photo by McElvy Studios
I felt the pain that all of these couples were experiencing and I know how hard it was for each and every one of them. It was supposed to be one of the happiest years of their lives and instead it turned into utter disaster and disappointment. I know to people getting married, it truly does feel like the end of the world but I will share the advice that I shared with my clients who postponed or temporarily had to cancel their weddings…
Unfortunately life can be really unfair. Please know that your special day is still going to happen. I know right now it seems like the worst possible scenario is coming true (and to be honest..it kind of is) but your day will come. You will be that absolutely stunning couple getting married soon and it will be totally amazing! Everything happens for a reason. You will still love each other in a year when you can actually have the wedding that you have always dreamed and everyone who loves you will be there for support. You are getting ready to spend the rest of your lives together and this will only prove how strong your love truly is. Stay positive and live each day with each other to the fullest! I will never dismiss how sad and upset you are about this situation because I know it has to be disappointing, but buck up buttercup and get excited about the new wedding date or whichever direction you are going because it will be FABULOUS!
Another solution is also wine…lots and lots of wine to drown the sorrows!
It was an extremely difficult year for the wedding industry and not to mention, the couples getting married. We were all definitely defeated but we have persevered and done the best that we could! We transitioned from what we knew and created the new normal for weddings. Micro-weddings and intimate ceremonies became extremely popular! I honestly think that micro-weddings will become a type of new normal for the wedding industry because some people really only want to have a small wedding. Hopefully life can somewhat get back to normal soon and then we can all live our every day lives! We miss weddings!!! We want weddings!!! WE NEED WEDDINGS!!!!!!
Please come back for more if you enjoyed!
Upcoming Blogs:
This Thursday’s Blog: My Big Fat Virgin Wedding
Next Monday’s Blog: How to Deal with your Postponed Wedding
Next Thursday’s Blog: The One Where the Bride & Groom Almost Fist Fight…
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