The wedding business is back on again.
After cancellations and postponements arising from more than a year of pandemic-related quarantines, social distancing and face masks, Upper Valley businesses tied to the wedding industry say inquiries are rolling in about availability.
“Numbers-wise we are back up to almost where we were in 2019,” said Brandon Blood, owner of Blood’s Catering & Party Rentals in White River Junction. “We’re booked solid for seven out of 10 weekends between mid-August and early October.”
Blood’s enthusiasm stands in contrast to last summer as the pandemic shut down weddings and gatherings. When couples nixed nuptials — many pushing the date into 2021 — that in turn stranded banquet venues, tent companies, caterers, photographers, floral designers, musicians, DJs and other vendors.
But there are still some snags for the knot-tying industry: fewer weddings planned for May and June. That means business doesn’t really kickoff until July and August, with more weddings than normal planned for September and October.
And because of social-distancing and related concerns, guest lists are coming in smaller than usual, meaning less revenue for vendors, which typically charge per-head.
“I have a couple in June, some in July and August, but September and October are fully booked,” reported Michelle Boleski, owner of Petals, a White River Junction floral designer who estimates fully half of the weddings she is doing this year are postponements from among her 21 clients that called off their ceremonies last year.
The reason for backloading the wedding season, especially in Vermont where the wedding industry has marketed the state as a storybook backdrop, is that state officials didn’t announce until early April that the mask mandate would be lifted on July 4.
“The rollout in Vermont, even though very well-done, was late for a lot of people,” said Courtney Lowe, vice president of marketing at the Woodstock Inn and Resort.
“For us the majority are coming in July, August and through October and even in the winter months,” said Lowe, who estimated the Woodstock Inn will host “in the neighborhood of 35-ish” weddings this year compared to a pre-pandemic level of about 50 annually, noting “it’s steadily coming back.”
Talena Companion, who owns Premier Entertainment and Events, of South Burlington, which provides DJs, lighting and photo booths throughout Vermont, said wedding vendors in the state she has spoken with expect to do between 50% to 75% of their pre-pandemic business.
“We’re experiencing some hesitancy with parties dropping their number of guests, either because their budgets changed or their comfort level in terms of hosting large gatherings,” Companion related. “But since the guidelines came out we’ve seen a surge in inquiries.”
At the Quechee Inn at Marshland Farm, wedding and event coordinator Emma Behrens said they are now “almost fully booked” with 20 weddings scheduled from May to October, although 10 of them are carryovers from last year.
“New bookings really started coming in once (Vermont Gov. Phil Scott) gave out guidance,” Behrens noted, adding that the parties mostly tend to run “smaller than usual” in May and June but then grow to “normal size of between 100 to 200 people” in the latter end of the season as more people become vaccinated.
White River Junction caterer Blood said his biggest wedding party of the summer is not even a wedding.
“I’m doing a quote right now for 250 people for a couple who already did their wedding last fall,” Blood explained. “They want a big celebration.”
Norwich Bookstore reopening
Upper Valley bibliophiles have been bereft as Liza Bernard and Penny McConnel’s Norwich Bookstore — one of the last quality bookstores remaining in the area — has been closed to in-store customers through much of the pandemic.
Now good news: The Norwich Bookstore was to reopen on Saturday, which is, not entirely coincidentally, also Independent Bookstore Day.
Although the bookstore has been serving its loyal customers via online ordering and curbside pickup, the only time it has been open to in-store browsing in the past year was a brief October-to-Thanksgiving window “until the (COVID-19) numbers got bad and we couldn’t stay open,” Bernard said.
Saturday’s reopening date was picked because “mostly all of us will have had our second shot by then,” Bernard said last week.
Initially, there will be no book and author events at the store, and hours will be limited Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Staff will “manage the flow” of in-store customers to ensure not too many are inside at the same time, Bernard said.
Bernard declined to discuss the financial impact the pandemic has had on the store but noted, “what’s really sustained us is the fact that people have been turning to us and the kind words and appreciation” she regularly hears from customers.
“I’ve worked hard all my life,” Bernard confided, “but I’ve never worked as hard as I have the past year.”
Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.
