Weddings Postponed, Cancelled During Pandemic

The wedding planning and event industry throughout Pasadena and Los Angeles County, which has traditionally centered round large gatherings not barred by pandemic restrictions, has come to a virtual standstill since the onset of COVID-19, planners say.

A report published last month by Loanry, a national firm dedicated to matching lenders and borrowers, found that American couples owed $3.7 billion in loans that were taken out to finance weddings that have yet to occur. An estimated 93% of planned weddings between March and October have been postponed.

The trend was no different in Pasadena, where local wedding planners said their businesses had essentially vanished.

Carol Banh Keiner, who owns The Blushing Details wedding planning service in Pasadena, estimated she’s lost nearly $70,000 in income this year due to the pandemic.

“It’s tough. Of course, we’re suffering, because a lot of our weddings are being postponed untll next year,” she said. “A lot of them have big gatherings… so by not being allowed, that’s a big source of our income.”

“I would say all my weddings got postponed, except for one who reduced the guest count and just did a ceremony. But other than that, our industry is suffering.”

Keiner said she believed government interventions was needed to establish a set of responsible guidelines that would allow traditional weddings to continue.

“Then we could have at least some kind of guideline to continue having this business,” she said. “Restaurants can still operate outdoors, but the wedding industry can’t do that.”

In the meantime, “You’re, you’re having like a lot of these weddings doing things illegally, they’re doing it in their backyard… they’re doing it in like a way that it may be unsafe,” she said. “And so that’s why we’re rooting to get the government to have some sort of guidelines, some sort of regulation for us.”

Fortunately, Keiner said, many venues are working with couples to allow them to postpone weddings, rather than cancel them altogether.

In the meantime, Keiner said unemployment benefits are helping, but with large monthly payments due and parents to care for, “unemployment is not cutting it.”

Wedding Planner Candice Yen, who owns Milk Events in Pasadena said she’s seen much of the same.

Normally, the company plans about 50 weddings per year, she said. “I would say 75% of our couples have cancelled or postponed.”

“We also understand on the side of the couple, there is a lot of uncertainty, there’s a lot of risks,” Yen said. “But it does affect the industry.”

In addition to the state- and county-wide prohibitions on large gatherings, many couples are also facing economic difficulties amid the pandemic and deciding to hold off on getting married until finances improve, Yen said.

“The biggest push I think the industry is trying to make is to postpone, not cancel,” she said.

And while large events with long guest lists and receptions are off the table for the time being, small intimate ceremonies are still permitted.

“I think what the pandemic has kind of done, in a positive light, is it kind of narrowed it back down into” ‘What’s the most important part about a wedding?’ It’s getting married. The party is a separate thing, but getting married is the most important and the most special part,” Yen said. “You don’t need to have that many people,  just you’re really close loved ones. And I think if there’s a positive light to all of this, it’s just that it kind of brought that attention back to intimate little events.”

“And it kind of saves a good amount of money for the couples too,” she said.