April is supposed to be the start of wedding season, but due to COVID-19, venues are empty.
“We were very busy, now we're very quiet,” Michael Yatvin, owner of Elmwood Gardens by Provence in Palestine said.
Yatvin says during the wedding season, they usually average two to three weddings a weekend, but as of now, weddings that were scheduled for the spring and summer are postponed until the fall of 2020.
Kerstin Humphries and her fiancé, Eric Willett, were supposed to be getting married at Elmwood Gardens in late May.
“[It's] just stressful having to redo everything,” Humphries said.
Now they’ve moved their wedding date to September.
“We're actually going to the courthouse to get married legally, just before because we just want to be married and then we're gonna do the whole wedding ceremony at the venue,” Humphries said.
The wedding industry, on average, brings in $74 billion a year, according to IBIS World.
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Yatvin says although weddings at his establishment have been postponed, with restaurants opening, he’s prepared for his venue to do the same.
“We took away the same formula that he's using for restaurants and 25% should be applied to a wedding and indoor wedding as well,” Yatvin said. “We've also looked at things like putting less people at a table.”
While some couples may be ready as soon as next month, Humphries and Willett think it’s all about balance.
“Well, I think that it's a little more complicated than one or the other because you have economy on one side and you have health on the other,” Willett and Humphries said. “You start having four or five weddings a week in the spring in different venues, you're going to see yeah, because people spread quickly. I mean, it's just unfortunate and I hate that industry to take a hit over it but families come from everywhere like our family comes from all over the us and like texas. Just the fact that one of them can affect all of us is just insane. I definitely don't think that everything should be opening back up.”
Yatvin says at 25%, an indoor wedding would equal 75 guests and outdoor wedding could accommodate around 250.
The venue also holds a garden with vegetables and since they're not using those for catering at the moment, they plan on giving them away when they're ready in June.