Wedding business tied up in knots

“This should be the start of busy season, and it’s not,” says Sheila Rooney. “There’s nothing happening.”

Sheila is a talented photographer who specialises in capturing couples’ big days, but her comments could have been made by any number of suppliers working within the stagnant wedding sector. The mother of two was easing herself back from maternity leave in March 2020, yet still had about 20 weddings booked when the pandemic struck.

“From that I went down to four,” recalls Sheila. “And of those, only two booked me for the full day – the other two, I was literally at the church for an hour.”

Provisional figures from the Diocese of Kilmore show there were less than 100 Catholic weddings in 2020, down from over 300 the year before. That trend is likely to be replicated among couples of other faiths and none, with restricted guest numbers seemingly the determining factor.

The government’s recovery roadmap saw reception guests increase to 25 from the bank holiday Monday, June 7; to 50 from July 5 and, all going well, 100 from August 5. Other key details remain sketchy however: live music and dancing are ruled out until at least July 5; an 11.30pm curfew is in place until August 5 at least.

Cootehill’s Errigal House Hotel is one of the county’s top wedding venues. Like hotels nationwide they have been hit hard by the restrictions.

“March 2020 we were getting into the busiest time the year when Covid hit,” recalls hotel manager Niall Kelly. “We had three or four weddings that weekend and the St Patrick’s weekend – it was a massive hit.”

At peak times of the year Niall estimates weddings account for about 80% of revenue for the Errigal.

“We have had several postponements already,” he says of this year. “One couple have actually moved up to Northern Ireland because they’re allowed more [guests].”

Many more couples are in a state of limbo, reluctant to confirm a date.

“They are not prepared to go for 25 or 50 – they’d want 100, 150 minimum. It’s all up in the air. No one knows what to do at the minute,” says Niall.

For their wedding business to approach normality, Niall estimates the guest numbers would need to rise to 150, which is still along way from the Errigal’s capacity of 420 guests.

“Your average wedding before Covid would have been in around 200, 250 which was great. I don’t know when we will see those numbers again, but for us to be viable and to make it worth your while, we would need to get 150 minimum.”

Any prospects of seeing 150 this year?

“I can’t see it no.”

While the government has given broad strokes of the guests permitted for the coming months, details of whether live music or dancing will be permitted, even from July 5, remain sketchy.

“The brides who are going ahead with their smaller wedding – they want to know if they are allowed music, is there a close off time?”

To grasp how the pandemic affected wedding dress specialist Michelle Cullivan, you need only look at the new modular unit she’s installed at her Amsha Bridal business at Ricehill.

Two chrome rails spanning the unit’s 20ft length are fully loaded with wedding or communion dresses cocooned within protective covers. Each wedding dress represents a bride who has postponed their big day.

“I didn’t have enough storage so I had to get the unit to store them in pristine condition,” Michelle tells the Celt.

“Most of the weddings from 2020 had been pushed out to this year, and now a lot of them have been pushed onto later this year and into next year as well because they are not sure of the numbers they are going to be able to have.”

The restrictions have also hit Michelle’s other sources of income: Debs have been “wiped out” for the last two years, while communions have again been bumped back in recent weeks.

While Michelle strikes an optimistic tone throughout, she admits feeling frustration at times: “The bridal business is huge in Ireland – hotels, the churches, the flowers, photographers, videographers – they’re completely wiped out through it all.

“The likes of publicans and restaurants and retail have a voice – they have the vintners and Retail Ireland and all those. We had nobody, and we felt like we were totally forgotten about.”

The pandemic isn’t Michelle’s only headache. She’s also contending with Brexit as many of her suppliers are based in Britain, which tangles her up in VAT and tariffs.

“Say I got a box of four dresses delivered, I could have to pay over €1,000 at the door for the VAT and charges. They are saying ‘cash on delivery’ but I don’t carry cash. So I have to try to get through to a number to pay by card, and you can’t always get through to the number, so it’s a bit of a mess,” Michelle says.

And what of her brides these days?“They had been very deflated initially but, since we started opening up again, they have been getting a little bit of the excitement back.”

At least Michelle could put dresses in storage; when it comes to flowers that’s not an option.

“With flowers, that’s it, after two days they are going into the bin,” laments florist Jolanta Kudabiene. The bin is where the flowers ended up for a large wedding she had booked when the first lockdown came.

“And I didn’t get money for that,” Jolanta recalls.

Earlier this year she had bought €1,000 worth of flowers from her wholesaler, only to find out on the morning of the big day that someone close to the bridal party had tested positive. The wedding was off. Jolanta and the bride shared the costs.

“She offered to pay the other half – I couldn’t take it. It wasn’t her fault; it wasn’t my fault. It was terrible, I was giving flowers for free to people as a present!”

A naturally upbeat person Jolanta punctuates most sentences with a laugh that falls somewhere between good humour and despair after a truly horrendous year.

“For 2020 I had 82 weddings booked,” she recalls.

How many went ahead? “Probably 10. A few were cancelled because people were abroad, they didn’t know what was going to happen, they started asking for deposits back. They started to postpone – plan A, B, C, D. You can imagine my calendar.”

Big lesson

Dealing with deposits were a particular source of stress.

“We live and learn – it was a big big lesson,” says Jolanta, who has been a florist for 25 years.

Despite weddings stalling, Jolanta still had bills to meet: Rent, credit card machine, electricity, insurance, internet.

“Ten times probably I said, ‘That’s it, I’m not able for this – I’m going to get a heart attack, end up in hospital, or definitely close down the business’.”

The stress doesn’t look like easing up. Jolanta describes her 2021/22 calendar as “black with circles” with bookings and rearranged dates. Thus from 2023 she is considering refocusing away from weddings.

“Without the weddings, I started to sell lots of gifts, I opened the web shop and it’s actually going well. And it’s no stress!”

Photographer Sheila Rooney also found a new income stream too due to the pandemic.

“The only thing positive is that businesses became so aware of how important it was to have an online presence. People were saying: ‘We need to put money into the website, and we need photos.’

Generous grant assistance from the Local Enterprise Office facilitated the drive online, so many entrepreneurs booked Sheila for branding shoots.

“They wanted to put a face to the company and drill home: shop local, shop local – this is me,” says Sheila of the work, which she enjoyed.

That’s the lone item on the plus side for the last 18 months – there’s many more on the negative side. “Communions, confirmations, weddings, events with the council, birthday parties – there’s been a lot of missed opportunities and occasions,” she says.

The major shortfall is weddings, which she estimates accounts for up to 90% of her income.

“There are a lot of people postponed until October, November, December in the hope that it will be back to normal and we’ll be up to 100, so there’s a lot of people provisionally booked in. But then there’s still couples who are holding their date – ‘So if things don’t go ahead before Christmas, will you hold this date for next summer?’

She notes the pressures the pandemic exacerbated for some betrothed couples.

“If you are in your late 30s, early 40s mid-40s, and you want to have a family, you’ve already postponed for 12 months – you can’t put your life on hold for another 12 months – that’s two years where there could have been two babies. Whereas if you delayed it any longer you may not be lucky enough to have kids. Some people had no choice unfortunately. Even with the ridiculous number pulled out of the air, they still had to do it.”

While restrictions caused many couples to postpone, some went ahead with the restricted numbers with the intention of a larger, more conventional bash at a later date.

“Anyone whose wedding I have done during restrictions, they have booked me for the full [second wedding] day – so it’s the bridal prep and the church for a blessing,” she says.

While the coming months may be slow, she expects things to pick up as restrictions ease.

“I know family photos will be a big thing, because people will say, ‘All six siblings and their kiddies haven’t been together in nearly 12 months – you know what, let’s get a photographer’. So I know that will come as well. And when the communions, confirmations and weddings pick back up that will be great.”

For Sheila wedding photography is a vocation and without them she feels an absence in her professional life.“Weddings really are a special day to be part of,” says Sheila.

“You never leave a wedding in bad humour – it’s always great.”