Coronavirus CT: Is It Too Late To Save The Wedding Season?

CONNECTICUT — On Tuesday, Gov. Ned Lamont announced the state would be rolling back capacity restrictions for private gatherings at commercial venues next month.

Beginning March 19, the crowd size for private, social and recreational events will be elevated to 50 percent of the hall's capacity, with a maximum headcount of 100 people for indoor events. That's an additional 75 guests who may now be invited to the party. Outdoor events will be able to seat 200 people, an increase of 150 compared to the current restrictions.

It may not have seen like a big deal for most people, but most people weren't dreaming of having the most important celebration of their lives in the next couple of months.

"For the people that are planning their weddings in March and in April, this is a lifeline," said Jonathan Jennings, executive vice president of CT Wedding Group, which operates the posh venues The Barns at Wesleyan Hills, The Pavilion on Crystal Lake and Lyman Orchards Golf Club.

"These people have been planning their weddings for many months, and they've been on edge since last October not knowing if the state was going to take a positive step forward," Jennings said. "So this gives them the confidence to know that they're actually going to be able to have their weddings."

The rest of the state's starry-eyed betrothed who are looking to tie the knot in May, the perennially popular June, and later in the year, can breathe a little easier now that the state has telegraphed the business sector's reopening, according to Jennings.

And make no mistake, that business sector has taken a beating. In 2019, more than 18,000 couples were married in Connecticut, according to The Wedding Report. Each nuptial celebration was an injection of more than $35,000 into the economy, feeding not only the busboys and valets at the reception halls, but florists, videographers, DJs, wedding consultants and others servicing the industry.

That all hit a wall in 2020 — with the possible exception of a few icicle enthusiasts who may decided to get hitched in Connecticut during January or February, before the coronavirus outbreak.

"Last year we all felt really neglected," New Britain-based photographer Emma Thurgood told Patch. She's been shooting weddings professionally for five years. "A lot of the focus seemed to be on making sure that retail and restaurants could open. The wedding industry is nothing to sneeze at. We bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars of business and tax dollars to the state, so is our money not green?"

The more rapid thawing of coronavirus restrictions for the restaurant industry has been a sore point for some whose livelihood revolves solely around nuptial celebrations. Restaurants already enjoy a 50 percent indoor dining capacity.

Thurgood chalks the early concessions up to the "lobbying power" of the larger industry: "The squeaky wheel gets the grease," she said.

Making matters worse is the lead time demanded by catering hall logistics. Lessen state restrictions on a restaurant Thursday, business picks back up again on Friday. But given all the advance planning that goes into weddings, it's months before the effects of a governor's pen stroke show up in anyone's wallet in that sector.

Nevertheless, Lamont's decision this week is a cue for the wedding hall bosses to start making some "happy phone calls," according to Jennings.

"It's an opportunity for us to start to think about recalling some staff, and that's incredibly important because there are still nearly 30,000 people in the Connecticut hospitality industry that had jobs last February before the pandemic that are still out of work," Jennings said. "These are talented, passionate career-oriented people with families in many cases, and now we have the opportunity to pick up the phone and say 'hey, it looks like we're going to be operating, so come on back to work.'"

Read: Lamont To Expand Private Gatherings At Social Venues

If things are looking up for big weddings, the jury is still out on the fate of "micro-weddings," which Thurgood described as her specialty.

The photographer said that some of her clients, seeing how seismic the big wedding landscape was in 2020, decided to tie the knot in a small, backyard affair in 2021. The state's Phase 2.1 cap of 10 people outdoors at a private residence remains in effect, however, even as indoor gatherings will soon be allowed to accommodate 100 guests.

"This is leaving those backyard weddings out in the cold," Thurgood said.

Still, 2020 wasn't all doom and gloom for wedding vendors — if you had the right niche, according to Thurgood.

"I have another photographer friend who specializes in elopements, and her business took off like a rocket."