COVID-19 and Your Wedding

Planning a wedding almost never seems to have something to do with the shape of global events, political crises or the global market. After all, it’s such a private event and I, for once, always stress about the privateness of it. But then comes a time, or rather a very specific moment, when things aren’t as isolated, as private, as close and personal as we think they are.

Yes, today I’m talking about the infamous coronavirus, in the extent of the wedding planning industry, but, more importantly, in what should or shouldn’t be a concern for your private upcoming event. If it feels strange for you to read about it on a wedding planner’s blog, then that’s fine. You can stop reading or just humor me for five more minutes. These are some ideas I’ve been collecting and that I originally intended to share with my actual clients, but as things progress and the media starts shouting panicking news, I felt it’s more than welcomed to share this with all my readers.

What we know so far

COVID-19 is the novel coronavirus, which emerged in China just a couple of months ago (December 2019, to be exact). It is a virus that spreads from person to person, through droplets from the nose or mouth. These droplets can land on a variety of surfaces, from where they can be picked up by touching the surface, then touching one’s face, mouth or nose. It’s most frequent symptoms include tiredness, fever and a dry cough, according to the WHO.

We know that some 80% of people getting the virus will have mild to none symptoms and that there is a probability that complications occur in high-risk populations, like the elderly, people with other medical conditions and smokers. We also know, looking at the data we have so far, this is a very contagious virus and WHO already warns about this going pandemic. As of today, there is no vaccine to prevent it’s spreading, but scientists around the world are working hard in achieving a breakthrough in fighting the virus.

Some regulations might affect your wedding plans

Unfortunately, we cannot know yet the impact the virus will have on the wedding industry. In Romania, for example, we’re still in the “engagement season”, which means there aren’t many weddings or private events happening in the next months. First weddings should start, traditionally, at the beginning of May. This might all blow off until then – this is something we cannot know for now – but scientists and public health specialists are reserved about long term prognostics.

The wedding industry is very much connected to the world. We get chairs, tent supplies, tables and tableware, small decorations and even wedding dresses from China. In Romania, we also have some big wedding dresses brands from Spain and Italy. Flowers are grown all over the world and sold (mostly) through the global market from the Netherlands. Food is very much imported from EU and non-EU countries. What I’m trying to point out is that, looking at the bigger picture, your wedding is not a local, small gathering. It’s not isolated.

It might be the case that you need to travel for your wedding in Romania. Or you have friends and family traveling. This comes to add up to a number of concerns. For now, Romania’s Ministry of Health imposed a ban on flights from Italy and some strict regulations for people traveling from Iran and China. Germany and Spain might follow, as the number of cases increase in these countries. All events and gatherings with more than 1000 people are now to be rescheduled or canceled. Sports events and other big events, like concerts and conferences, are taking a huge blow from this regulation. Local authorities might impose even stricter rules in the upcoming days.

What might happen next?

Well, I don’t pretend to be an expert in public health, but, with a reserved view on things, I can think of a couple of scenarios. Without getting overwhelmed in my head, of course.

The optimistic scenario would be that once the weather gets warmer, the virus will start to die and the number of new cases will slowly decrease to none. This means that, by the time the wedding season starts, regulations will loosen up again and we’ll have a normal summer, full of weddings and private events.

A more reserved scenario looks quite different. We might see very strict regulations coming into effect in the next few weeks. Some businesses might suffer delays in delivery. The flower market might suffer more hiccups or what we could call a collapse, as trade routes start closing. Other outcomes might follow.

What can you do?

I didn’t write this article to try and panic anyone and I definitely do not want you to understand that I’m here spreading more bad news. I’m still trying to wrap my own thoughts around this problem and see what are the things that we can avoid and what are the ones out of our grasp, as a community of small business owners and direct clients alike.

Besides keeping a close eye on reliable information sources, here are some things that might help:

1. If your planned guest count is bigger than 100, check local regulations and see if you need approval for your event.
2. Check your contracts and discuss with your venue and/or your catering team to see  what might happen if your numbers drop from what was initially planned. An honest, open talk, ahead of time, might be better than just hoping for the best.
3. Check your wedding guests list and give special attention to people who need to travel for your wedding. Are they at any risk of not being able to travel (for local or international safety regulations that are in place now or might be in place in the near future)?
4. Do you have your dress made locally? Check with your bridal shop and see whether there are any delays in deliveries and/or if there are things that can be done in order to get your dress in time.
5. Same for any jewelry, your wedding rings or other attire items.
6. If you’re working with a wedding planner, set time to discuss in detail about some safety measures before and on the day of the wedding.
7. Move some or all of your meetings online.
8. Check with the vendors and see if they have any concerns about their delivery and services. It’s a good time to address health concerns for them, as well. Pair some of the safety measures discussed with your wedding planner in the conversation. Everyone wants to feel safe!
9. Thinking about your honeymoon plans, check to see any travel insurance that may apply, in the event of needed cancellation. Better yet, if you don’t have any plan in place, you can just postpone things until more information would be available.
10. Last, but not least, think about some precautions, for you and your loved ones. Be conscious about your travel plans in the next period of time. Avoid large crowds and, yes, wash your hands thoroughly and often.

I really hope things will get better soon and we’ll start seeing more positive notes on this very sensitive topic. We all have such beautiful weddings planned for this season, such joyful moments that need to see light.

What are your thoughts on this? I’m really interested to know if you think there are valid concerns for our industry and for private events.