When wedding planners, venues, and other essential suppliers start wondering about what to do with couples who are forced to postpone or cancel their wedding amid the coronavirus pandemic, the entire wedding industry is thrown into a state of uncertainty.
The virus may have caught everyone off guard and the global lockdown may have put the world in a standstill, but many couples still hang on with an unwavering faith, hoping to get married sooner or later.
So, in the middle of these turbulent times, we gather the personal views of some wedding suppliers and soon-to-wed couples about how they are coping and how they envision weddings and events would be like after COVID-19.
We hope you’ll be comforted by their messages of love and commitment, and be encouraged by their plans for future celebrations.
Amady Manila
We keep the ball rolling. As much as possible, we do our operations the way we normally do. It’s challenging because we are limited in terms of movement, resources, and materials, but we have to keep it going. We do our part in making sure that people can still see us, and we do that with online marketing. We don’t stop creating content. Answering inquiries is still ongoing. Online meetings are the best option now so we do it as well. We don’t want to make our clients feel that we are not available because of what’s happening. Together with our industry friends, we make sure that the industry is still working.
Atom Ungson, Wedding Host
The nice thing about weddings, as cheesy as it may sound, is that they are rooted on love. While the actual event may have been affected, the love is not. Because of this, weddings don’t get cancelled. They simply get postponed to a better date. Some have chosen to wait it out while others braved the uncertainty and secured a new date.
That, however, is the main challenge for couples: to find a new date where they can retain the services of all or most of their original suppliers.
Suppliers, on the other hand, are in no better state and are feeling the effects of this crisis, too. For a lot of us, no weddings means no income. Others are even obliged to return some payments. This is not a great time for the wedding industry, as it is for many other industries. But I’m not worried because if there are groups of people who would overcome this crisis, ours would surely be one of them. We are a strong, resilient, and creative bunch.
Allen Uy and JP De Jesus, Blooms 2710 Event Styling
We gave our clients one-year booking validity from the date of their event. We encourage them to postpone instead of cancelling. Amidst the feeling of uncertainty, we still have that hope that weddings will still be alive after all this chaos, and we will make sure to be there for our clients whatever the situation may be.
Boy Kastner-Santos, Fashion Designer
I’m very proactive in dealing with my clients, and I always tell them that it’s better to postpone the wedding than to cancel it. After all, the planning has already started, and we all need to trust that spark of hope and remain positive despite the pandemic. I always tell my clients that I am not just a couturier, I am also their friend.
Charisse Tinio of Niceprint Photography
To be honest, it’s really heartbreaking, not only for us suppliers but also for the couples. I can just imagine the stress and frustration they must be going through. For us, we usually get more postponements than cancellations. Couples are moving to a much later date for 2020. I am hopeful and still remain to be positive about everything.
Niceprint has joined some campaigns like #SaveEventsPh and participates in some fund raising projects that will benefit our front-liners and the employees of the wedding companies who need the most help. I also still conduct some online meetings with our couples and try to finish what we can at this time. Though everything looks so dark and hopeless now, I believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Christine Ong-Te, Events and Wedding Coordinator
I think weddings and events in general will be simpler and more practical, in a sense that clients will be more conscious about where their money will go. Weddings will also have a more heartfelt atmosphere, considering that every one of us, wherever you may come from, has been affected by this crisis. We will see families getting together to hold a more meaningful celebration. We will see engaged couples, treating their wedding in a new light and with a renewed sense of purpose.
Erron Ocampo of Metrophoto
As wedding suppliers we must be there for our clients, especially those who have moved their weddings. We make sure that our communication lines are open for any of their inquiries.
I still believe that weddings will be one of the most celebrated events after this pandemic. It will be very busy for wedding suppliers again and for sure more couples would want to get married, because time is of the essence and now everyone would see that love will still prevail.
Gideon Hermosa, Event Stylist
We value our clients more than ever, and we understand their frustrations during this difficult time. That’s why we try our best to communicate with them through online conference calls, assuring them that we will still be here and provide top-notch service even after this pandemic.
This has really taught me to prioritize the safety of my clients and colleagues. I believe that after the lockdown, events would be more meaningful.
Happy Andrada, Fashion Designer
I’m being open and accepting to my clients. I support them on moving the wedding to a later date. I’m positive that the cure for the virus is coming really soon. When the lockdown started I never stopped accommodating clients. At this time of need, I also sold my bridal dressing robes online and gave 30% of the proceeds to our front-liners.
Jo Rubio, Fashion Designer
After the ECQ was implemented we corresponded with all of my brides and clients. We presented them with options on what to do. Rescheduling their wedding dates was our first option. I am glad all of them agreed to postpone their events.
After this pandemic, in my point of view, things will slowly go back to normal. Perhaps, couples would opt to make their weddings simpler and more practical. Our economy will be affected by this crisis. As a designer—just like any other wedding supplier—we have to patiently adjust and cope. We are all in the middle of an uncertain situation, and I believe we should all aspire to program ourselves to have a positive mindset.
Marex Gaba, Wedding Coordinator
Naturally, I felt sad for my clients. As a planner, I’ve been with them from the early stages of the planning, months before the big day. So when the situation was already getting worse, I knew how stressed they were. However, until the announcement was made, we continued with the planning. Then, it finally happened. When the ECQ was made official, I wanted to spare them more heartache, so I just stepped up and informed everyone involved myself—the entourage, the suppliers, the talents.
I have to start with myself. I stay home, and encourage everyone in my family to do the same, to help stop the spread of the virus. I am taking advantage of the time that we have and updating files. I keep in touch with my clients to help them keep a positive attitude, to make them know that the planning will continue soonest.
Rita Neri, Events and Wedding Planer
This COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented for the whole world. Its impact will only be thoroughly assessed and understood when it ends. The event industry worldwide is still trying its best to cope, adjust, and deal with what is happening. Cancellations and postponements for all events—especially weddings—must be viewed as a health and safety priority. One cannot celebrate any special occasion if it means risking the lives of others.
As most are doing, we are taking several steps to save our existing weddings and events by facilitating any needed postponements with venues (both for the ceremony and reception), checking the availability of suppliers about the change of dates, and revising contracts to reflect such changes. We are also more proactive in reassuring couples that we just need to bide our time and let this play out, and that we will continue to be there for them. Financially, it has negatively impacted the budget of most events, especially for weddings, since some venues are not refunding or allowing changes of event date.
Post COVID-19 weddings will have more couples conscious of policies and rules regarding postponements and cancellations in the contracts of venues and suppliers. Event insurance should also be looked into, as well as other means affecting the wedding budget.
Teddy Manuel, Event Stylist
We continuously welcome clients and inquiries. We keep ourselves relevant by being visible on social media. I recently uploaded tutorial videos on my youtube channel (#teddymanuelexperience) for people to follow, to continuously inspire them.
For me, weddings and events are celebrations of life’s milestones and we’re hopeful that people will continue to do that once the pandemic is over. There might be some adjustments, and some couples would prefer to spend on essentials as their budget might be affected, but it will normalize with time.
Teena Barretto, Wedding and Events Specialist
First order of business is to keep everyone safe and well-adjusted before going back to the grind. That includes the safety of our clients, suppliers, event guests, and my team. It’s important to me that no one gets harmed, in any way, under my watch. That said, we have strongly insisted on moving all our 2020 events to the last quarter of the year until early 2021. Risking the second and third quarter may give us more losses than wins and we don’t want to sacrifice the quality of our jobs over an unstable time and situation.
As their wedding planner, I take the role of a figure of authority to establish the social responsibility and moral obligation among my clients to put their lavish and extravagant plans in their proper place during this difficult time.
We have endured several crises in our lifetime and even those that came before us, which only means that weddings will continue to be beautiful despite the troubles we encountered these past few months. Weddings may take a turn into simplicity or they may make a steady stride to over-the-top celebrations in time, but the constant drive for all this will always be love. And no matter what circumstance comes our way, love will and should be celebrated.
Voltaire Zalamea, Events and Wedding Specialist
I am still blessed because all my clients that got affected by the crisis just moved their wedding dates—they did not cancel. Despite the lockdown, I help my clients talk to their suppliers and make sure that everyone is aligned when it comes to the changes. It is now that we really go the extra mile for our couples, even if it’s beyond our scope of work, just to make sure that their events will push through as planned.
Richard Dean Barcelo and Geraldine Valeriano, soon-to-weds
Weeks before the Luzon Community Quarantine took place, my partner and I anticipated the possible outcome, so we prepared ourselves for the worst thing to happen. With the travel bans imposed in other countries, it was then a fair prediction that we might experience the same fate. Unfortunately, we did postpone our wedding. As heartbreaking as it has been, it is the best decision for us, moving forward.
I am a member of a closed group in Facebook called Weddings at Work (we call ourselves Wawies) and just like many other OFW couples, we are having difficulties in rescheduling our wedding. We do have a tentative date, but it’s still unsure as no one can predict if we have already recovered after six months or so. There are heaps of things to consider in rescheduling but clearly our top priority now is our health and safety.
Special days may have passed, money may have been spent, and that feeling of excitement may have slowly faded away, but know that we are all in this together. Let us not dwell on things we cannot control and focus on positivity during this situation. We’ll come out stronger!
Rudy Bellota and Jessica Palmiano, soon-to-wed couple
Our wedding was supposed to be held in Italy on Oct. 3 2020. At first, we were uncertain on how to proceed because we didn’t know exactly how COVID-19 was going to unfold. What we did was we spoke to our wedding planner and asked her also for her suggestions, agreed on a timeline on when to make a final decision, and also asked our friends and family about what they thought about it. Luckily our family and friends loved us that even though some of them had bought their tickets already, they said that they would follow whatever decision we made about the possibility of changing the dates. When Italy did their lockdown, we decided to put off the wedding for a later date but agreed that we would hold our private ceremony under the Church as soon as we can.
We have spoken with our wedding planner and have relayed to the suppliers that we are pushing the wedding to next year or until further notice. We will wait for the next few months to make a final decision on the date and go from there.
The pandemic may have changed our plans on when to celebrate our wedding day but it definitely did not change the objective of why we are going to do it. As we have chosen to share this most important moment of our life with our dear friends and family, have chosen the suppliers who will handle the event for us and where it would be, we will still do it as planned but at a later, better date.
Miguel Montelibano and Pamela Carunungan, soon-to-wed couple
When we first heard about the pandemic back in December, we honestly thought it would never reach the Philippines, since it was happening all the way in China. But when the virus began making its way to our country in January and February, I started to get really nervous. And when it began getting worse in March, we could barely concentrate on anything because we kept thinking about our event, everyone’s safety, and what we should do. Miguel and I were scheduled to get married on March 27, 2020. President Duterte announced a nationwide lockdown on March 13: just two more weeks ‘till our big day.
Everything was prepared, our suppliers were ready, my family and friends from the USA, Canada, Australia, Cebu: all their flights and hotels were booked. On March 14, Miguel and I made the difficult decision that it was best that we postpone our wedding until the virus has been resolved. It was a very emotional time because we were so looking forward to celebrating with all our family and friends. Also, Miguel and I have waited almost 11 years already. But the last thing we want is to put any of the people we love at risk. We made this decision with full confidence that the number one priority is health and safety.
Words by CELESTE ZAPATA | Featured photo by METROPHOTO
