Renee McMillen and her partner Adam Smith have been planning a wedding since 2020.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Renee McMillen
January 31, 2022 - 6:33 AM
After two years of the COVID pandemic, brides, grooms and event planners are riding the waves of restrictions and choosing outdoor, private spaces in hopes they can hold events.
Renée McMillen, a Surrey resident hoping to hold her wedding in Okanagan Falls this summer, is currently in limbo, waiting to see what is happing with restrictions while planning a small wedding at their family summer home.
Provincial health guidelines currently allow large outdoor events at 50% capacity of the venue or 5,000 people for a seated event but indoor events are banned.
McMillen and her fiancé Adam Smith have been holding off since 2020.
“Is it better? is it just the same? I don’t know,” McMillen said.
“Within this week, we have to make the difficult decision whether or not to continue. A lot of it has to do with COVID and some family dynamics that are also a little challenging also due to COVID since we haven’t had the time and ability to build those relationships,” she said.
The couple followed last year’s restriction guidelines with a 50-person cut-off but they’re worried about rain for their June wedding, forcing the event to go indoors. It’s also been challenging to connect with vendors that align with a small wedding, she said.
In the event they cancel, they’ve talked about eloping or making it epic by taking a helicopter somewhere but rental deposits can’t be moved to a later date so they'll be losing money, she said.
Candace Sims, owner of Made with Grace Events and Bar Services, an event planner who covers the Kootenays and the Okanagan, said she's done more elopements in the last few years than ever before.
Others keep rescheduling their weddings, but have lost out on lots of deposits, she said.
People are also staying away from indoor venues with concerns about increasing restrictions. They seem to be moving towards private properties rather than large venues, like utilizing Airbnbs.
READ MORE: Thompson-Okanagan couples opting to elope now, party post pandemic
“It’s been extremely challenging. The first year (during the pandemic) giving back all of the deposits and even going to reschedule people was really hard. I almost lost my business at that point but I have been slowly trying to grow with other things, not just planning but with decor and inventory, trying to grow myself without me physically being there because not everyone is needing wedding planners and coordinators right now,” Sims said.
Provincial health officer Bonnie Henry has defended her stance on the current ban for indoor gatherings like weddings and funerals but has allowed sports to operate, citing the venues have better ventilation.
B.C. gyms were given the green light to reopen last week following an outcry from across the province when they were ordered to close in December 2021 due to increasing infections due to the Omicron variant.
A change.org petition calling for the reopening of weddings and events has also gained nearly 3,000 signatures as of Jan. 28. It was created Jan. 25.
"The wedding and event industry is a multi-billion dollar industry in B.C. and we have come together to appeal to the provincial and federal governments to re-open weddings and events with a COVID safety plan in place," wrote petition creator Radhika Graham. "This request comes after we have seen countless industries that were deemed non-essential in the early days of the pandemic now remain open, no matter the case numbers, with safety guidelines in place."
The petition is addressed to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Premier John Horgan.
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