Wedding bell blues in the age of COVID-19
'We’re seeing the world adapt in so many ways, having virtual weddings and having the greatest time'
"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry," said the Scottish bard Robbie Burns. And at no time in recent memory have more plans gone awry as during this pandemic.
COVID has wreaked havoc on graduations, birthday celebrations, bar mitzvahs, proms, funerals and weddings.
One of the top destination-wedding locations in Canada is Prince Edward Island. And Elysian Weddings and Events is the biggest wedding planner in Canada's smallest province.
"Wedding planning is generally pretty stressful for couples at the best of times," said Elysian's owner Kristina Allen. "COVID has definitely thrown a wrench as well because these couples have been working towards this for so long, and now they're facing the reality that there's a very good chance their wedding is not going to happen quite like they had planned it."
Allen says she and her team of consultants have been spending a lot of time consoling their clients and helping them make difficult decisions about their best-laid plans.
Because the pandemic has had a minimal impact on P.E.I., couples initially were not concerned, but later they realized family and friends in other parts of the country would not be able to travel to attend their wedding. Most people have set a back-up date in 2021, which Allen now expects will be an extremely busy year for weddings.
"They've decided, 'We don't want to stress anymore. We really want to have the fun time leading up to a wedding. We don't want to wake up every day stressing about the news. We're going to postpone, and now we can get back to being excited about the wedding,'" said Allen.
She says we all need to consider the long-term effects of COVID too, how it used to feel natural to touch and hug each other and that may no longer be the case, even after physical distancing is no longer mandatory.
However, she remains optimistic.
"We're seeing the world adapt in so many ways, having virtual weddings and having the greatest time," she said, "and really still enjoying themselves."
Click on 'listen' above to hear wedding planner Kristina Allen, with her view of life on the edge of COVID-19.
