For the hundreds of couples that choose to get married in Snohomish each year, all of them rely on the hundreds of professional industry businesses to make their special day a dream come true.
More than 30 farms and venues are available for seasonal and year-round for weddings and events, and the hundreds of associated industry caterers, photographers, florists and event planners provide significant economic revenue to our community, between 15 – 20 million annually.
Due to COVID-19, an international pandemic, Gov. Jay Inslee announced a State of Emergency on February 29th, 2020, and amended his proclamation to include the limit of gatherings on March 11th. An extension of his “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” emergency order banned all gatherings and temporarily shuttered non-essential businesses through June 1st and perhaps, beyond. With restrictions still in place, the Snohomish Wedding Industry is on the verge of a break-up.
In an effort to better describe the devastating economic impacts to the Snohomish wedding industry, The City of Snohomish, along with the leadership of the Snohomish Wedding Guild crafted a survey to gage the economic toll our wedding professionals are facing.
Culled from 49 responses, industry professionals representing Snohomish venue operators, photographers, caterers and other wedding specialists reported 370 bookings from March 1st to June 1st, 2020. 8 venue operators reported 53 bookings during this time period.
From the time COVID-19 restriction were put into effect, more than half of those bookings were entirely cancelled creating a revenue loss of $681,329 in that 3-month time period. Refunds issued totaled roughly $117,479.
47% of those bookings were postponed to later in 2020.
124 bookings after June 1st have been cancelled causing an estimated revenue loss of $444,050. 95 of those bookings have been postponed to 2021, and 77 postponed indefinitely. And while grateful that full refunds didn’t need to be returned to disappointed couples and future business seem certain, vendors know that those postponed weddings are now taking prime booking dates off of their calendars intended for new business in the coming year. Total reported revenue lost from June 1st forward is $700,425.
All in all – responses value the total loss from March 1st forward at $1,144,475.
“The biggest concern is the lack of new inquiries,” said one respondent. “Right now I would be showing my venue and booking fall, winter, and spring dates causing a constant flow of new contracts, down payments, and payments on accounts receivable. I have received no new business and no new payments since March 15th.”
With barely 20% of the industry responding, the survey offers only a glimpse at the real economic impact felt by the entire industry.
Here are just a few personal stories;
New Creations Weddings &
Twin Willow Gardens
“Venues and so many other wedding categories can literally provide nothing as we are a service and not a product.
How do we pivot? How can we bring in money when it’s illegal for us to operate? The answer is we can’t.
There is no financial relief coming our way, nor do we know when we can reopen our doors.” – Rebecca Grant
Weddings and events were one of the first things impacted when COVID-19 reared its ugly head. There was (and still is) fear of the unknown on both sides of the coin- first for all the small, sole proprietor businesses that are in the wedding and event industry, and second for the couples who have been planning and dreaming of this day for so long.
My husband and I are hit two-fold. I am a full-time wedding planner who has successfully run New Creations Weddings since 2009, bringing in year over year growth. Secondly, together we just purchased our own wedding venue, Twin Willow Gardens in Snohomish this past October.
Two-thirds of our income relies on people gathering. That opportunity has been devastated with government mandates and so much ambiguity about when we will be allowed to gather for events again.
We have applied for every grant option out there, but do not qualify for assistance. We work for ourselves and only take a draw from our bank account versus actually taking a paycheck. In addition, we do not have employees on payroll. Restaurants and caterers have pivoted to providing food to go, florists are providing weekly arrangement deliveries, etc. Venues and so many other wedding categories can literally provide nothing as we are a service and not a product. How do we pivot? How can we bring in money when it’s illegal for us to operate? The answer is we can’t. There is no financial relief coming our way, nor do we know when we can reopen our doors.
The uncertainty causes our clients to panic and want to reschedule (which we highly encourage couples to do) or cancel all-together. The majority of the industry is accommodating reschedules as best as possible, but it’s just not sustainable. We have already been booking for 2021, so there is already a limited inventory of dates available to reschedule to. Once we reschedule to an available date that then pulls inventory out for future bookings, causing even more lost revenue. On the planning side, I have already rescheduled 11 weddings into late 2020 or Q1 of 2021. For the venue, we have been encouraging couples as much as possible to consider a mid-week event, as we just don’t have enough available inventory for our seasonal (May-October) wedding venue. We know that’s not the first pick and are incentivizing couples so they will consider that as an option.
We carry very high overhead- a $10k+ per month mortgage, paying for plants/landscape to maintain our garden venue for when we can reopen, insurance, utilities, advertising, and the list goes on. At this point, we have lost over $80,000 in revenue in reschedules alone for dates we could have booked in 2021. There is no grant that is going to cover the amount of loss we have incurred.
The wedding industry is being sorely overlooked. We are supposed to be coming into full swing for our wedding season, and we have no way of bringing in income. Couples may lose their original wedding day, but they can eventually still get married. Meanwhile, we cannot pay our mortgages, and will lose our homes and wedding venues if this continues for too much longer.
We have tried to remain positive by staying busy in the gardens, offering virtual tours, and doing “Instagram lives” to showcase all the beautiful plants that are budding right now. It’s just so sad to think about couples should have been enjoying this with us come May 1st, and they can’t. We were so looking forward to our first season as venue owners and sharing all the hard work we’ve done to improve the property with them and that has been put on hold.
The celebrations can’t come back soon enough. We know there is a party in the future, and we are so excited to get back to normal with weddings and sharing our beautiful property with everyone. We know this too shall pass and can’t wait until it does.
JOANNA MONGER PHOTOGRAPHY
“My photography business is the sole source of income
for my family of five.”- Joanna Monger
I am a boudoir and wedding photographer with a studio in Downtown Snohomish that has been shut for the last 2 months. I pride myself on being a great source of knowledge and a calming presence for my couples, but right now, I have no idea what weddings are going to look like this summer and it is hard not be able to give my clients the answers they are wanting. Weddings are notoriously stressful to plan anyway, and I really feel for everyone who is currently trying to get excited about their upcoming nuptials. It’s hard to get excited about something you are not 100% sure is going to happen.
I am feeling a lot of weight of the unknown on behalf of my couples and the Snohomish Wedding Industry as a whole. As Vice President of the Snohomish Wedding Guild, I am fielding a lot of calls and emails from anxious wedding professionals wanting help and guidance during this uncertain time. We have had to cancel our annual Snohomish Wedding Tour which was scheduled to happen in May. We are currently trying to move the tour online so we can still effectively connect new couples with our local wedding professionals for 2021.
My photography business is the sole source of income for my family of five. I would be lying if I didn’t say that the financial repercussions this is taking on my business isn’t having its effects on me too. With little to no help from the government, it is a very worrying time indeed to be a small business owner, especially one who’s income is very seasonal. The last few months have highlighted for me the fact that having only one source of income is a little risky and so as a serial entrepreneur, I’m already planning out a couple of new business ventures to tide us over.
As for the future of weddings, in my opinion there will always be weddings of some kind and there will always be a need to have them documented, so in the long term I feel our industry will be okay. What weddings will look like in the short term is the tricky part and keeping our heads above water as wedding professionals for the next year or so until things settle down will be the big challenge. I am really looking forward to the day when I can pick up my camera again and document joy in the world. Just imagine how fun the weddings are going to be when we can eventually all get together again!! The good I see coming out of this is that many of us have had a chance to look within and spend more time for our families and loved ones. I am excited to be able to document love in a whole new way with fresh eyes, when it is safe to do so once again.
PJ PARSONS PRESENTS
“I really miss the hugs I get from my couples and watching a packed dance floor.” – Pj Parsons
I recently became a multi-op company, which means I have DJs who sub-contract through my business. Not only does having our industry suddenly become illegal affect me, but it affects my team.
I feel the weight of supporting my team, my couples and the vendors in the Wedding Guild. I’m the type of person that can find the silver lining, no matter how many layers it is under. I’ve been looking for the positives and sharing with the people I care about.
I’ve been self-employed for my entire adult life, so financially we are going to be okay. My company is almost 20 years old, so I’ve weathered a few financial storms over the years.
I have found that my husband and I will be fine when he retires and is home full-time. Turns out we really like hanging out together. I miss my grand kids like crazy. My oldest granddaughter told me she misses me so much, her heart is cracked. I get it. Everyone better be ready for long hugs when we get to be together again.
I really miss the hugs I get from my couples and watching a packed dance floor. I’ve been making playlists and playing music almost every day, I miss creating special days and seeing smiling faces. The weddings I do are not about me, but I definitely benefit because of the joy I get watching things come together for my couples and their families. I did a wedding right before quarantine, and the bride introduced me to her wedding party as, “My PJ”. I don’t know if there are words to describe how amazing that feels.
My hope is that this situation will help small businesses plan and be ready for anything. I also hope that as a community we can see that the constant hustle is not as important as we thought. The things we are missing the most right now need to be our priority when we get back to our new “normal”.
Kameko & OMAR
“It’s disappointing and unfortunate that we will be unable to celebrate with our friends and family this year, but we are truly grateful that most of our vendors have been so accommodating.” – Kameko Ogg
My fiance Omar and I got engaged while on a road trip from LA to Seattle last summer. We have been excitedly planning our wedding for July 18th of this year since then. However, when the pandemic hit, we knew early on that it was unlikely that we could make the wedding happen this year. All of our guests are flying to Seattle from New York, Pennsylvania, California, Georgia, and even a handful from China. Regardless of the restrictions in place, it wouldn’t be right to ask our friends and family to take the risk of traveling to be together.
Our vendors have been wonderful, and incredibly supportive. We know this has been a huge hit to them as they are now forced to postpone weddings for the busiest season of the year. It’s disappointing and unfortunate that we will be unable to celebrate with our friends and family this year, but we are truly grateful that most of our vendors have been so accommodating. We were lucky and implored our venue to let us change the date before we would have to start competing with all of the rescheduled weddings and the weddings being booked for next year. We look forward to July 2021 when we hope there will be a vaccine and we can all be together.
The Snohomish Wedding Guild (SWG) is a cooperative wedding resource that serves the Snohomish, WA area. They are a group of wedding professionals who are proud to help promote the Snohomish community as the most prestigious wedding destination in the Puget Sound and are dedicated to providing a positive experience to those they serve. Our venues and wedding professionals are highly regarded in the industry.
To join visit www.mysnohomishwedding.com.