Weddings season starts with only small gatherings allowed as couples face tough choices

It’s just about time for the wedding season to kick off in the Okanagan and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the industry, with many couples forced to choose between scaling down to micro weddings, eloping or pushing their dates once again.

“It's a struggle and it's sad because, before the pandemic, you watch these couples put their plan and their day in their vision...when it comes to life it's so wonderful,” Candace Schneider, co-owner of Whispering Details and a Wedding Planners Institute of Canada (WPIC) certified planner said.

“In saying that, it was deflating watching some just completely cancel or some just elope and be done with it. It's each for their own, what that couple wants.”

Tamara Foster, co-owner of Vines & Vows Event Planning said she’s been working with some couples who are in their third time around of planning after rebooking.

“[They're] feeling deflated...We’ve put the same work into it three times over with nothing but [hope] to see the final vision come to light. We’re just being optimistic for them,” Foster explained.

“We do have some couples that are saying, let’s get married, ten and under [guests]. Let's go to some orchard, vineyard or winery and have an elopement, and just celebrate next year.”

One of her couples had a plan for a 150 person wedding, but dropped that down to ten and strictly outdoors in order to comply with the current Provincial Health Orders, which allow for the same ten people to gather outdoors safely.

“Is it a sad thing that their 500 person wedding went to five people? No, it's just different,” Schneider added, speaking generally.

Sondra Richardson, who is a certified celebrant and marriage officiant has had a busy year being called out for the small celebrations and elopements.

“It's been everything from one to two days' notice, ‘Hey we’re on vacation can you marry us?’ So I meet them at the hotel on the rooftop and marry them. To having just beautiful ceremonies where they’re going to be welcoming a baby and the mom and dad were able to be there. It's heartwarming with lots of emotions,” Richardson explains.

While many of her bookings were cancelled and postponed in 2020, more people this year are accepting that this year may not give them an opportunity for a bigger celebration.

“I think that they're definitely processing this grief. Particularly with people with a specific cultural background where they’re used to having really big celebrations trying to come to place in their hearts where they make peace with that.”

But Richardson said that some of the positives allow for the couple to really focus on themselves and the ceremony, get more creative with their small weddings, bring family in virtually from all over the globe or even take off in a helicopter to get married on a mountain top.

Even with cancellations and re-bookings, See You Later Ranch, a popular venue for weddings in the South Okanagan, has over 30 weddings set up for this summer, and future bookings are also hot.

“Many have rescheduled to 2022 to keep their original dream wedding alive. Others have already had their weddings pushed from 2020 so are deciding to go forward with that more intimate event. Many brides and grooms are actually looking forward to a smaller scale event as it’s less stress, and less of an investment. Regardless of the couple, we are always encouraging them to have a Plan B and C,” Sally Sharpe, Estate Regional Manager for Arterra Wines said in an email.

But another popular venue, Poplar Grove, has an empty calendar with zero weddings booked for this summer.

“Sadly, this summer’s weddings were either postponed or cancelled due to the ongoing challenges of COVID guidelines. We will focus our attention on hosting our guests while providing wonderful culinary experiences in The Restaurant at Poplar Grove,” Michael Ziff, the food and beverage manager for Poplar Grove said in an email.

Lang Vineyard is sitting at around eight bookings for this summer, with smaller numbers to comply with the restrictions.

“The ten people that they have or are allowed to have, that includes the caterer and the photographer. They really had to scale back in the number in their party,” Teresa Campbell, the sales manager for Lang Vineyards said. “It’s definitely affected everybody for sure.”

“They're not going as all-out either, just being very creative with what they can do.”

Some couples are still holding out hope for this summer, planning for their day to be allowed to have larger gatherings.

“For people that have set dates and are stuck on that date, they're just doing what they're allowed to do,” Schneider said.

“We leave it up to them. Every venue and vendor that we deal with has been awesome as far as moving dates, rental for example. As long as they have it available when you change it to, they'll move it for you.”

With a large number of couples choosing to move to next year’s dates, venues in the Okanagan are already filling up and venues have limited spaces left.

Foster said that in the venues she works with, Three Sisters Winery is almost fully booked, Bench 1775 is completely full and Lang Vineyards is near to being full for 2022.

“It's definitely going to be challenging, but we’re almost capped out with capacity for 2022.”

But whatever the couple chooses, planners and venues say the day will still be just as special.

“Some people have actually postponed to '22 because they can’t imagine not having that type of big celebration,” Richardson said.