There isn’t a corner of the country that hasn’t felt, for the last several months, the impact of COVID-19 and resulting stay-at-home measures aimed at preventing the virus’ spread.
The late winter/spring timing of the pandemic, however, posed a particular challenge to the wedding industry, occurring at a time of year when many couples have already planned wedding ceremonies at venues booked months in advance.
For wedding venue owners and operators, it’s been an especially challenging time.
Oakland Farm, an 18-acre wedding venue in Bear Creek, opened in October 2015 and has seen brisk business in its first five years of operation, said venue manager Kaitlyn Hockaday.
Last year, Oakland Farm hosted 30 events. This year was poised to be even more successful.
“In 2020, we had 50 events on the calendar,” Hockaday said. “This was supposed to be our best year yet.”
That was, of course, before the unanticipated emergence of the novel coronavirus, forcing Oakland Farm’s owners and operators to adapt.
Approximately a dozen of the events scheduled for the Bear Creek wedding venue have been rescheduled, Hockaday said. About half of the events planned there have been rescheduled for 2021.
With the state currently in “Phase Two” of re-opening, restrictions remain in place for large gatherings. Oakland Farm and other venues in the state may host parties with 10 or fewer guests indoors and 25 or fewer outdoors.
Most of the weddings hosted at Oakland Farms have guests lists numbering around 200.
“It’s a bit frustrating for us,” Hockaday said of the restrictions, noting that “restaurants can be open at half capacity.”
“So it’s a little bit of a waiting game for us,” she said, “waiting to hear what the governor decides.”
Elsewhere in Chatham County, other popular wedding venues have also had to adapt.
“We have indeed been impacted by COVID, as the whole country has been,” said Gilda McDaniel, director of Weddings & Special Events for Fearrington Village. “Our usually busy spring events season was put on hold, but I am proud to say that all of our couples will still be celebrating with us either later in the year or next year, or on the original date with a slightly altered plan.”
But despite the extra challenges posed by COVID-19, McDaniel said the end goal remains the same.
“We always work extremely hard to accommodate our couples through the exciting time leading up to a wedding,” she said, “so this year has been a little extra challenging, both with the need to reschedule and with the world’s uncertainty. But we are hopefully still making the process as stress-free and happy as it can possibly be. That’s our goal.”
The Fearrington events director noted, however, that “a definite trend is for couples to choose to go ahead with their scheduled wedding dates and get married, then planning to still have their big celebration in the future, either here with us, or in their home town if that was the original plan. We have had some really lovely small weddings in the last few weeks.”
And Fearrington, she said, has easily adapted, hosting a number of smaller-scale weddings in recent months.
“Our gorgeous gardens are the prime setting for tiny weddings as well as large groups,” McDaniel said.
Wedding ceremonies held since March “have been extremely intimate,” she said, with those weddings (including bride and groom) keeping their parties under 20 people.
Nevertheless, some wedding venue operators are feeling growing frustration with the ongoing uncertainty about full re-opening.
Courtney Hopper, who co-owns The Bradford, a wedding venue spanning 12 acres in New Hill, with her sister Dana Kadwell, is rescheduling a number of weddings planned for the spring.
But she added that her industry — there are approximately 1,500 wedding venues throughout North Carolina — was “left out” of plans for North Carolina’s Phase Two re-opening.
“The frustrating part is the lack of information coming from the governor’s office,” Hopper said.
The Bradford, unlike some other wedding venues in the region, hasn’t held an event on its grounds since last November, when the venue closed temporarily for an expansion aimed at making 2020 even more successful.
“Hopefully [the expanded space] will help with future bookings,” she said. “We’ll make it through and get to the other side of it. Right now, we just need more guidance so we know what kind of conversations we can have with our clients.”
As for whether couples hoping to wed should plan a ceremony under current conditions, McDaniel offered her thoughts: “Now is certainly a fine time to start planning a wedding,” she said, “either really soon (for a small group) or in the future. I think it is always advisable to try to be flexible and ready for things to come up, and in this time of COVID that is particularly important. Thinking about what is truly important to you and then not stressing all the little things too much will make for a much more enjoyable experience for you and in the end you will be happily married, even if it does not happen exactly as you might have always expected.”
Randall Rigsbee can be reached at rigsbee@chathamnr.com.