COVID-19 IN THE WEDDING AND EVENT INDUSTRY

Mar 8

Anyone in the wedding and event industry feeling f*cked by the panic across the nation and the world right now? Yesterday, I posted a blog entry about how my personal and family life in Washington state has been affected by the Coronavirus … and I touched quickly on the financial strain it has already taken … but I barely got into the WHY of it … 90% of my clients come from the:

WEDDING + EVENT INDUSTRY

… and as I hear on social media and the news: events and weddings are being canceled all over the place because of:

FEAR AND PANIC AND STATE OF EMERGENCY GUIDELINES

… which means, my income has caught COVID-19 in a huge way … I saw on FB a few days ago that a Seattle based caterer was told she had to CANCEL all of her upcoming events until otherwise directed … and that other caterers were told the same. Here in Seattle, we are being advised to keep gatherings to 10 people or LESS … and last time I checked: most weddings and events that bring in income to professionals have way more than 10 people …

THE DOMINO AFFECT OF THIS CRISIS HASN’T EVEN TRULY BEGUN YET IMO

We have zero clue as to when this will end … every minute it seems, I get a notification on Twitter from @BNODesk about the climbing numbers around the world … and no matter how many ‘dumb ass remarks’ are being made about how ‘Spring will end this chaos’ because of the warmer weather, the truth of the matter is: WE DON’T KNOW SH*T because this is a new virus.

AM I TRYING TO SCARE YOU?

Definitely not … we have enough of that to go around … just spend half a second on FB and you’ll see something to scare the crap out of you … what I am saying is, this is VERY serious for anyone in the event industry because LARGE GROUPS TOGETHER is what an event IS. What a wedding IS. You can’t ‘ZOOM’ an event or wedding …

‘HEY, EVERYONE … JUST A QUICK UPDATE TO OUR UPCOMING WEDDING … WE’LL BE DOING IT IN A GOOGLE CHAT ROOM … OUR WEDDING PLANNER WILL SHARE THE LINK VIA EMAIL … WEAR BLACK TIE … CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL THEN!’

I mean … basically the truth of the matter is: we’re not lookin’ too good right now.

SO WHAT CAN BE DONE?

I don’t know. Nothing? I’m sad and scared and worried … if you are a wedding or event industry professional this is a very real thing for you. The cancelation of events and weddings … the slow of the phone ringing (who am I kidding, people don’t use their phone …) or rather the slow of new inquiries coming in via email or Instagram is a form of anxiety none of us were ready for.

“HEATHER, SO FAR THIS POST IS A NO FROM ME”

I know, I’m sorry … what the f*ck is my actual point? I guess I don’t really have one? I’m venting … personal post … A huge part of me wishes the media would stop the ‘1 count updates’ … I feel like every time there is a new case or a new death, we get an update … like 2 minutes ago it was 3 deaths … now it’s 4 … it’s causing way more panic than is normal … it’d be nice if they’d do a nightly update instead of updates every 10 minutes … but I don’t even know what I’m talking about … it’s all bad … and if you are in the event and wedding industry … or the restaurant industry … I get it … I feel what you’re going through. I know I’m a website designer, but you are my clients …