Like many young girls, Emily Curtis had a vision of what her dream wedding would look like – the dress, the venue, the first dance.
And until early March, Curtis and her then-fiance Nate Curtis were spending their free time finalizing all the little details for the perfect day. They had chosen April 10 because it was their four-year anniversary and the most important day out of the 366 on the calendar this year.
Then it became increasingly clear the day the Jaffrey couple envisioned wasn’t going to happen due to the coronavirus pandemic. They couldn’t gather in a large group for the planned 55 guest ceremony and reception and their venue wouldn’t be able to host their nuptials.
They could have postponed it to later this year, but with the special meaning behind April 10, it would have most likely meant waiting until 2021 to become Mr. and Mrs. Curtis. But that wasn’t the plan – it wasn’t what they wanted.
So in a private ceremony in the living room of their Jaffrey home on April 10, the couple exchanged vows and said their “I do’s” in front of their officiant and Dexter, the couple’s cat.
“We’ll do a party another day,” Curtis said. “Being married was the most important thing.”
Instead of her dream dress, Curtis opted for yoga pants and a tank top. She didn’t get her hair and make up done, sharing in those precious moments before the ceremony with her closest family and friends. But with plans to hold a celebration at some point, those memories can still be made someday – the Curtises just wanted to be married.
“I was sad I wasn’t able to get the same experience every other bride does,” Curtis said. “There were a couple weeks where I was heartbroken about it, but it was completely out of my control.”
And those around her made the day extra special. Her mom Dee Burns used to own Daffodils in Jaffrey, so she put together the flower arrangements, made a cake and collected cards from those who were supposed to attend the big day. The couple’s friends sent flowers as well and they got a takeout dinner from The Waterhouse in Peterborough, which they enjoyed by candlelight. They even fed each other cake.
“I wanted to marry my best friend and we weren’t going to let anything stand in the way,” she said. “It was casual, but special. I was fighting back tears during that 20 minute ceremony.”
They connected with family and friends through FaceTime and will one day host a celebration to eat and dance, and share those special moments with the people that mean the most of them.
“It was a special day – although it was definitely a little strange,” Curtis said. “The world may be at a standstill, but our love is not.”
There are many couples like Emily and Nate Curtis that have been forced to make a decision about their wedding And it has wreaked havoc on the wedding industry.
Sorrell Downing, owner of Events by Sorrell in Francestown, said earlier this month that she had 15 couples under contract for her wedding planning business this year, but all but two in August decided to postpone.
“They’re still hoping they can have a wedding,” Downing said. “But I have a feeling those two August holdouts will pare it down or postpone.”
She said the ones who had weddings planned for May were forced to make a decision almost immediately when the pandemic changed everything.
“That’s when I had to sit them down and say you’re not having a wedding,” Downing said.
Lauren Somero, a photographer based out of Peterborough, said she had 12 weddings scheduled for this year and almost immediately, six decided to reschedule for next year.
“The others are fall weddings and aren’t quite sure what to do yet,” she said.
Matt Fish, owner of Curtis Farm Outdoor Weddings & Events in Wilton, said all of the scheduled weddings through August have been canceled. Typically, Fish said the farm hosts about 15 to 17 weddings in a year and were about 75 percent full for 2020 before March and they’ve already lost 10 of those weddings. Half have opted to reschedule while the others are waiting.
“It’s just been catastrophic for us,” Fish said.
Cathy Furze purchased Country Bridals & Formal Wear in 2002 and this year is turning out like none other in her previous almost two decades in business. Not only did she have to close her doors for more than a month and a half, but when she reopened earlier in May she had to drastically change the way business is conducted.
She said most of her clients who had weddings planned for May and June postponed, which has meant dresses set for alterations are just sitting on a rack waiting for the new date.
“I don’t want to do it twice,” Furze said.
Sherry Williams, owner of Fiddleheads Cafe & Catering, said she had eight weddings cancel already for this year and it is getting her nervous for next winter.
“Weddings are my plus money, that’s my profit,” Williams said.
Downing said she has had a lot of conversations with her clients and the biggest thing she is advising all her couples is to move forward with getting married in 2020 and just plan to hold a celebration later.
She said that being married is the most important thing and that a wedding can wait – considering no one knows what a wedding will even look like this year.
“In light of a pandemic is that wedding going to be able to look the same?” Downing said. “There’s so many unknowns.”
Somero also sees the benefit of getting married this year and pushing off the celebration because “it’s impossible to say what life will look like in two months.”
“It’s unfair and it’s not they way you imagine it happening,” Somero said.
Downing said she went through all kinds of scenarios with her clients before they decided to postpone, including bigger tents, smaller tables and narrowed down guests lists.
Somero said she is hoping to pick up a couple small last minute weddings this year, but isn’t counting on it. She had a lot of conversations with her clients early on just to touch base.
“They didn’t know what to do, but they knew they needed to talk to me,” she said.
Furze said she has spoken with a number of customers who postponed, many of whom had been planning for more than a year.
“There’s been a lot of phone calls with a lot of tears,” she said.
Furze said that the reopening happened under strict guidelines because the store is based on face to face interactions. She has been hosting brides with only two guests, while others join virtually.
She put pictures of all the wedding gowns on the website and asks brides to pick from there.
“We can’t allow people to touch every dress in the store because we have to sanitize them,” she said. She invested in a fabric sanitizer that disinfects the dresses before being put back into circulation and has brought in extra cleaning supplies.
Williams said running a restaurant in a small town is not easy and catering is her way to survive.
“I cater because that’s how I make my money,” she said. “This is harder than when I started my business. The impact is huge.”
She said she got a loan through the second round of the Payroll Protection Program and while she will have to pay it back, it will allow her to make it through the winter. And the loss in revenue is not just from weddings.
“I’ve lost it all, from graduation parties to funerals, everything,” Williams said.
Fish said this was to be their 22nd season hosting weddings.
“We changed our lives to do this and we have no business,” Fish said. “It’s taken us a long time to get to where we are and if there are no weddings, there is no farm.”
Fish said in addition to the loss in revenue, they still have to incur all the same expenses, like insurance, a liquor license and maintaining the property. While keeping the deposits would help, Fish said that was not something they were willing to do.
“We basically still have to operate as normal, just without weddings,” Fish said.
Somero said while her schedule looks full for 2021 half of them are from this year, so basically her income from this year has just shifted.
“The financial impact is very stressful,” she said. Each rescheduled wedding is lost short-term income, and the weddings rescheduled to next summer eliminate dates she would otherwise have booked in 2021.
“The majority of my money is made on Saturdays between July and October,” Somero said. “And I know I’m not alone, but it’s a huge, huge challenge. You’re hopeful it stays on the books so you can survive long enough.”
Losing almost all of her business for this year has been devastating for Downing.
“There was one day I calculated I lost $40,000,” she said. “My business for 2020 basically evaporated.”
While even though her income has taken a huge hit, Downing is confident she will be in business in 2021 and has been thinking outside the box to offer unique packages to help get through the year.
“Hopefully that will keep the ship afloat financially,” she said. “But I’m not alone. The whole wedding industry has been hit so hard.”
While not part of the wedding industry, Furze said the cancellation of local proms means that 200 or so tuxedos won’t be rented and about the same number of dresses won’t be purchased. Add in the extra costs of cleaning and the financial hit is huge.
Even if brides do come through the door, Furze can no longer have as many appointments as in the past.
“We used to be able to book in 15 brides on a Saturday,” Furze said. “Now we’re going to be lucky if we could possibly fit eight and that’s going to be extending our hours to do that.”
And all of that added up is cutting into revenues.
“It’s really a serious financial hit,” Furze said.
Michelle Levesque, owner of Works of Heart Flowers, said she is lucky because weddings are only a small portion of her business. She typically only does one or two a month – three of four if they’re small – so while it does take away some revenue, it won’t put her out of business.
“If everything fell out and there were no wedding for this summer I’ll be okay,” she said.
In fact, the floral business has picked up during the pandemic with more people sending flowers due the fact they can’t see family or friends.
Levesque only requires a small deposit and if she has an order two weeks in advance she can do it.
Downing said that all of her clients had been able to get the same weekend they picked this year in 2021 for most of their vendors, but that will make things tricky for those who were thinking about getting married next year.
There may be certain weekends where she is double booked as she already had four weddings booked for 2021.
Somero said the biggest challenge has been rescheduling as she already had a handful of weddings set for 2021 and now has 12 for next year. She said for those who want to reschedule she has been emailing five potential dates.
“It’s a huge juggling act,” she said.
While it’s not ideal to do more than one wedding in a weekend, Somero said that will likely be the case next year.
“It’s exhausting being at three weddings in a weekend,” she said.
Fish said he is optimistic things can resume as it was before .
“We hope, as is the rest of the world, that this passes,” he said.
Downing is certain that people will eventually hold the kind of weddings they have planned for and dreamed of – unfortunately it’s looking like that won’t be possible this year.
It has meant a lot of extra work to try and reschedule and devise a plan for next year, although none of that extra work has come with any income.
Williams said she planned on retiring in the next few years, but this has changed everything.
“This is a huge loss,” she said. “I’m looking at three years to hopefully even out.”
Somero said she sees the impact of all the cancellations and postponements stretching out beyond 2021.
“The effect for photographers and everyone in the wedding industry will be 24 months,” Somero said.
She has been offering to shoot elopements for couples to try and generate some income.
“It gets me more work, but that’s the exception, not the rule,” Somero said. “But I’m just going to have to try and make up the income in other ways.”
Fish expects to survive if there are no weddings this year, but if the pandemic extends into 2021, he’s not sure how long they will be able to hang on.
“It’s having a wide ranging impact,” he said. “And all the people in the wedding industry are being hit just like us.”
While her business hasn’t been extremely affected by the pandemic, Levesque knows it’s not easy on those planning to get married.
“I feel for the brides and grooms because you look forward to the day,” she said. “If I would have had to cancel mine, I would have been devastated.”