Wedding venues feel impact from COVID-19 pandemic

It’s no secret that engaged couples across the nation have been forced to either cancel or postpone their 2020 weddings due to the spread of COVID-19 disease, but just how many have done so may come as a surprise to some. For one Houston County venue alone, more than one quarter of the weddings that had been scheduled for the year have fallen victim to cancellation or postponement. Of that number, 17% have been rescheduled so far.

Sara Barron is the manager of three small event venues in Houston County, namely, Forest Hill Park, Cherokee Pines, and Occasions at Lake Joy; all of which are located in different parts of Perry. Of the three, Forrest Hill Park, with its beautiful scenery and unique features, is the one that brides and grooms seek out most. In this time of pandemic, Barron admits that usage of Forest Hill Park has substantially decreased.

“It has definitely affected us a lot,” she said. “We’ve had a lot of cancellations due to social distancing and the restrictions on how many people can gather in one place at one time. Forest Hill Park, like all our venues, is relatively small. It holds up to 100 people, and most people who book it have 50 to 75 expected guests. Of course, people want to be safe, and we want people to be safe, so we’ve had to stick to the restricted guidelines.”

Over the past several weeks, a few couples, instead of postponing their weddings, have taken to Zoom and other computer-generated methods to broadcast virtual ceremonies that people could tune in to via the internet in lieu of physically attending. Barron said that these types weddings may have taken place at some of the larger venues in the county, but they have not hosted any at either of the event venues that she manages.

“The way we function, we pretty much just rent out our facilities for people,” Barron explained, citing that the event venues can be used for birthday parties, baby showers, church conferences, and other affairs in addition to wedding ceremonies. “We just make sure everything is set up, and they can do whatever they like. We’re not onsite coordinating or anything like some of the other venues do. So, we haven’t had any of the Zoom type ceremonies.”

According to Barron, despite the obvious challenges, business at Forest Hill Park hasn’t come to a complete stop. A small number of intimate weddings have gone forward during the time of sheltering in place, but they have been few and far between. “The most recent one we had was last week, I believe,” she recalled. “It was a really small one with about 10 people present, and that was our first wedding since around March.” Based upon information shared by Barron, at one time, the entire months of April and May were booked with full weddings, but most of those were postponed due to COVID. A few of the contracts were terminated altogether.

“That’s a big hit that we took,” Barron expressed. “A lot of the people who come to us are on a budget. If they’re going to have to downsize their wedding, they’ll probably just go to the courthouse instead of trying to make this work later on,” she said. “We book a lot of second marriages, and they’re just not as set on a huge wedding like some of the people getting married at these big venues are.”

The busiest months of the year for Forest Hill Park are generally May and October. May has already been heavily impacted with reversals and deferrals. For now, October remains booked solid, and Barron is crossing her fingers that it will remain so. “We’re optimistic,” she said. “Hopefully, everything will fall in place where it will be very busy that month. Also, with some of the postponements, a lot of people rescheduled to September and November and even next year. So, I’m hoping that this coming fall will be a time when business will pick up a lot and we’ll get booked up pretty fast.”

In spite of the negative impact that the pandemic has had on almost every form of business, Barron finds reasons to be thankful. “We haven’t had to close our doors. We only do scheduled tours, but that’s the way we were doing business even before COVID. We are open by appointment only. We try to encourage people to postpone their weddings here instead of canceling them. We’re a small business, and that helps us when people don’t cancel. All three of our venues have been really blessed. We’re not expecting to have to close down like many small businesses have had to do. This has been a tough time for everyone, but we’re grateful to have survived.”

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