There’s a light at the end of this incredibly long Covid-19 tunnel, but there’s still a long way yet for the wedding industry. Every wedding and event services vendor was deeply impacted by the pandemic. Wedding venues, planners, DJs, decorators, caterers, bridal salons… every major player in the wedding industry paused their businesses while our frontline healthcare workers in hospitals and testing clinics worked tirelessly to keep everyone safe. 

Wedding Professionals during the time of Covid

For so many industries, measures were taken to ensure business owners stayed afloat while sales dwindled or stopped altogether. The wedding industry wasn’t so lucky. Wedding vendors that helped create countless memories and life changing moments had to close their doors, and many for good. The wedding industry will forever be changed by Covid-19. Every wedding industry professional is ready, eager and passionate about making it through, but their hope is quickly fading. Wedding season 2022 is also at risk. 

Even though the wedding industry has all but shut down since March 2020, vendors finally have a place to turn for community support and assistance: the Small Business Event Services Association (SBESA). SBESA was created as a place for wedding vendors to unite in order to survive the tail end of the pandemic, as yet another wedding season looks to be drastically affected. There is strength in numbers, and the more vendors who join the easier it will be to gain governmental support.

What’s SBESA? 

You may be wondering why the wedding industry needs an association, and why now, after many have struggled for more than a year without one. No one could have imagined the colossal impact covid would have, and while countless couples pushed their wedding plans back from 2020 to 2021, it doesn’t look like things will be back to normal this summer. That means another season of hardship for wedding vendors, at a time when they’re already pushed to the very limit of what they can withstand while keeping their business open. Without this association and assistance it seeks to provide, many vendors won’t make it to the 2022 wedding season. 

Moving forward

It’s easy to empathize with brides and grooms who had to postpone their wedding or settle for impromptu plans with immediate family. We’ve all been there over the last year. Everyone of us had to put birthday parties on hold, cancel bridal and baby showers, or postpone travel. We all lost something. We lost money, we lost time, we lost loved ones. Everyone’s struggle is valid, including the people working to organize and orchestrate weddings. Some have been hit harder than others, but the only way to make it through is to support one another. With support from SBESA, small businesses in the event and wedding industry can gain some much needed support.

With everyone eager to get back to life as we knew it and brides and grooms anxious to finally live out the wedding of their dreams, SBESA  is working hard now to make it possible for business owners to respond to that need in the future, when we can finally celebrate with Covid-19 behind us.