February 11, 2021 · 0 Comments
By Fatima Baig
With the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling most in-person events since March of last year, many wedding planners are facing the challenge of planning weddings around restrictions.
Orangeville resident, Teena Avery is the owner of Elegant Professional Events and like many people, was in shock when COVID-19 hit.
“When COVID hit last year, it was a big shock to everyone. I had just done a wedding show where I bring in different vendors and open it up to couples who need all different types of vendors, then everything such down shortly after. I had 20 plus weddings booked last year. We did six little ones,” said Avery.
Since the pandemic started, Avery provides her clients advice through virtual meetings and often has to be flexible since regulations can change.
“As you are going through last summer, first it was 10 people who were allowed to eat inside together and then a week before another wedding they changed it [to] 50 people that were allowed inside of the venue. So, I was literally changing agendas a few days before the wedding,” she said.
Avery has found that most couples want to continue with their wedding during the pandemic and just alter it, but she does have that conversation with clients.
“One of the questions I ask my couples is what is most important to you? Is it most important to you to have 300 people around you, because if that’s most important to you and that’s what you want then I would recommend postponing the wedding and having a plan B and C,” she said.
Kaitlin and Matthew Wortley got married on July 11, 2020 and were among Avery’s clients who decided to continue with their wedding plans despite their fears.
“For us we had originally planned to marry in the fall of 2019, however, the universe brought us our daughter first that year and so we had pushed the wedding to July 2020. So, we really just didn’t want to wait any longer or pick a third wedding date,” Kaitlin enthused.
“Getting married, celebrating with a few close family and friends, plus everyone else virtually were the most important things, and despite all the restrictions we could still do that safely. It gave us a bright spot in a tough year and we weren’t willing to compromise on our most important priority for 2020 which was coming together officially as husband and wife.”
The Wortley’s originally planned on having a 100-plus person wedding, traditional format with lots of food & dancing at Hockley Valley resort. The plan was for a weekend full of wedding events; along with a Sunday brunch as well as a winery tour, but then the pandemic hit and it changed to 30 people who had to be socially distanced, wear masks and sanitize. Not to mention a storm hit the weekend of their wedding.
“We were in some ways unlucky because not only did COVID impact our wedding plans, but the weekend of our wedding it was storming. So, we first had to not only change our venue to an outdoor space due to COVID, but then we had to arrange the backup inclement space, which then had to be changed the morning of the wedding because of the wind gusts. Not to mention the power went out at the resort the night before,” Kaitlin explained.
Since the pandemic started, Avery has had to get creative with wedding planning to make sure they adhere to restrictions and don’t spread the virus.
According to Avery, she has had weddings with 35 people outside featuring a tent, and a dinner of 10 people where the bridal party went to a restaurant and had dinner separate from others.
She has also had wedding with revolving cocktail hours where the food was wrapped separately and only eight people were allowed at time to congratulate the bride and groom.
Avery urges her clients who are planning wedding to be flexible and consider what the possibilities are with the current situation.