Follow my blog with Bloglovin – First, do that if you want to follow along with a solid blog RSS feed. Okay? Okay!
Now, let’s chat about everything coronavirus. Because naturally, you are going to wonder what to do if you are planning your wedding during COVID19. And here inside of this post, I am going to be super open with you about what I’m personally seeing here from my end as a Seattle wedding photographer who’s under the rule of government mandates by Governor Inslee.
Thinking back to when all of this officially started with the stay-at-home order, I actually started to see a dip in the number of leads & bookings for 2020 starting about 2-3 weeks prior to then.
Why? Well, because that’s when the government and the media were really starting to talk about COVID19 here in the US, and Washington State was the first state to record any sicknesses or deaths from this crazy (and albeit scary) ailment.
And with most things, there’s usually a divide in the general population about their beliefs regarding the coronavirus and what to do about it during planning a dream wedding, right?
Here’s where the data really gets interesting about planning a wedding during the coronavirus.
Personally, I had about 35 weddings booked for the 2020 season. I say had because (so far), I have had roughly 12 couples postpone to 2021. (Both numbers are rough without me pulling up my CRM to look at the specifics).
Nearly all of those 12 couples are choosing to postpone not because they want to, but because they have to due to the government mandates of these states (Washington, California, Arizona, Hawaii).
The remainder of couples who could have still had their wedding day are postponing because their guests (family members) are unable to travel due to health and other government regulations in their states and countries (China, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, etc).
Yep, I was planning to do a lot of wedding travel this year, and the high majority of couples who book me don’t actually live in Washington State. And I love that.
Bottom line, I totally get the reason behind wanting to postpone. Truly. I do.
Now for the personal element about being a small business owner.
Because I truly want to give the absolute best service and communication (and overall experience) to every couple who books me for their special day, I am a full-time wedding photographer.
And with fewer people planning their weddings and with more and more postponements happening, that means my business is directly being affected by the coronavirus.
So, I am doing my best to serve each wedding, handle postponement requests, and be as flexible as I can. That all said, it’s really 2021 that I am curious about as a business person who provides for our family here at home.
Here’s why…
If the majority of couples postpone to 2021, that means there is not as much availability to 2021 couples on my calendar. And if there’s less availability to 2021 couples, that means less income for our family here as well because of the 2020 postponements.
That’s why I am personally requesting to couples that they at least consider postponing to a new date outside of Saturdays. That’s all. That way, couples still get to have their dream wedding, and 2021 couples are still able to choose those peak dates on my calendar to not affect our business (and family take-home) income.
Here’s why I love Friday weddings, and why we had one ourselves for our own wedding:
Haley (my wife) and I chose to have a Friday wedding ourselves when we got married all the way back in 2016. Why? Well, there are many reasons for it. Here are just a few of the main ones:
- By choosing to get married on a Friday, we had a much easier time booking the vendors we wanted.
- Many of our vendors gave us a discount to work with them on a Friday
- We absolutely loved making a long weekend out of it, and so did all of our guests
- Everybody loved having an excuse to take Friday off from work (we had a 100% attendance rate from invites to those who actually showed up)
- The venue gave us a big discount as well to have it on a Friday
- It was easier to set up for our wedding and have our rehearsal because we had a Thursday evening to do all of that, compared to a Friday where the venue is normally booked
- The list goes on. But yes, Friday weddings are amazing.
If you have any questions about what to do for your wedding planning, let me know. I really am here to help however I can.
And if you’re still in the wedding planning stages, here are a few resources to check out:
- Snohomish wedding photographer
- Snohomish wedding venues
- Seattle wedding photographer
- Seattle wedding venues
- Whidbey Island wedding photographer
- Whidbey Island wedding venues
