B.C.’s wedding industry future uncertain as COVID-19 restrictions impact income

As the events sector worries if they can survive another year without income, B.C.’s top doctor has given no indication when wedding receptions will be able to once again take place.

As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations remain high due to the spread of the Omicron variant, indoor organized gatherings of any size — including wedding receptions — are banned.

Meanwhile, B.C. sports stadiums can operate at 50 per cent capacity and fans can remove face masks while eating or drinking.

In her update on Tuesday, Dr. Bonnie Henry explained these restrictions are evaluated based on the risk setting of business models. She also gave her reasoning why fans are allowed at Rogers Arena, but families still can’t gather for a wedding reception.

“Look at a hockey arena. It’s a much larger space, there’s lots of ventilation space around people, with small numbers of people that are allowed in, with the capacity limits, the vaccine card … When you’re at a seat with very small number of people around you and a large amount of space, it’s much less risky than when you’re in a nightclub or an indoor venue where you’re close with people without a mask on. So it is a gradation of risk.”

In contrast, Henry notes indoor spaces with poor ventilation, less space, and areas where masks are not worn as consistently remain environments that are more at risk of transmitting the virus.

“The factors that we’re seeing have not changed,” she added.

Henry clarified that weddings and funeral services are not restricted, as the restrictions only impact the celebrations afterwards.

“Invariably, those are the settings that we are seeing transmission. Not at every single one, clearly, but many, many, many,” she said. “And that was what is very challenging.

“We’ve all been to wonderful weddings where yes, you all start off with the right intentions, [but] we’re sitting at tables … with people you haven’t seen, it’s a positive joyful time, and so at the end of the evening … it becomes more of a celebration, which is a wonderful thing, but also very risky right now.”

But Jessica Minnie with Petite Pearl Events says the wedding industry isn’t asking to be throwing raging parties.

“We’re asking for a seated, sit-down celebratory dinner … There is no more risk associated with that than gym spaces open with people not wearing masks or giant arenas where there are 9,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs,” she argued.

Minnie says the wedding and event industry is open to operating at small scales.

“We’re not asking for out of control, dancing or anything like that,” she said.

‘Financial impact at this point is dire’

About two years into the pandemic, Minnie says she and her clients are past being shocked by the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions that follow. However, she says people are in “disbelief” that the province will not allow this sector to safely operate.

“We’ve done it last year, and it can be done again, but we’re being given this blanket ban.”

Without solid answers from the province in the industry future, Minnie says she doesn’t know what will happen to  her business in the coming year.

Minnie says the fluctuating guidelines are devastating for her industry, as those workers tend to work on a month-to-month or year-to-year basis.

“So if we’re not getting answers or guidelines far enough in advance, it’s basically having this domino long-term effect on our year-over-year situation … We’re following these provincial health orders that are in place for weeks and can be changed overnight and/or are released with new updates without us even being informed.”

Given couples often book at least a year in advance for a wedding, Minnie says the event industry could suffer for years to come.

‘We’re not being respected as an industry’

Paige Petriw with Spotlight Events says if they don’t get a timeline on reopening soon, she doesn’t know how much longer B.C.’s wedding industry can last.

“I’ve worked probably over 40 hours a week for the past two years and I haven’t made a salary … everyone is in that situation,” she said.

“I think after two years of going through this, being faced with the third year coming upon this wedding season, it’s getting to the point for a lot of people where they’re like, ‘How much more money am I going to borrow? How much more in debt am I going to go into for both my business and my personal finances?”

When the industry was first shut down in early 2020, Petriw recognized the importance and embraced the restrictions. But now she’s extremely frustrated and doesn’t feel seen.

“We’re not being … respected as an industry. We’re not being given the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Bonnie Henry, with the health office, with WorkSafeBC, or the provincial health authorities, and come up with a concrete safety plan.”

Petriw says she and her colleagues have emailed safety plans to various political leaders in the province since the start of the pandemic but, “we’ve been completely ignored.”

Related Articles: 

• B.C. gyms to gradually reopen, other business COVID restrictions extended

• Dancing at weddings still a no-go in B.C.; planners disappointed but not surprised

• Micro-weddings at Vancouver City Hall here to stay for love-struck couples

Seeing concerts, sporting events, casinos, movie theatres, restaurants, group fitness classes open with safety rules ini place has been extremely frustrating for Petriw, who also argues her industry can operate with similar regulations.

“The contact that’s involved, the human contact, the different controls, the masks, the physical distancing, the 50 per cent capacity, the no dancing, the vaccine checks, the increased sanitization of high touch surfaces — all of those things we can implement and have implemented over the last two years for the short periods of time we were allowed to reopen.”

She adds weddings are not the only way this sector is losing business, noting corporate, community and charity events have also halted.

“We have no insight from the health office. We have no indication, no foresight in what they’re predicting or what their intention is,” Petriw said. “Are they trying to be able to reopen in some capacity in the near future? We just have no idea.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Spotlight Events (@spotlightevents.ca)

For her part, Minnie believes the industry is in a “dire” financial situation.

“This cannot happen for another year when there is no additional government funding, and there’s no understanding of when the income and revenue will start to roll in. Because we don’t have any long-term answers,” she said.

Minnie adds her government funding ran out a “long time ago.”

“We’re getting to a point where nobody can do it anymore. And that’s what everybody’s saying, that this is not going to last much longer. And we’re seeing companies on a weekly basis choose to leave the industry because they can’t handle riding the roller coaster anymore, and or they’re hitting bankruptcy.”