What if I’m not allowed in the country?
Design by Stefanie Miles. Photo by Cameron Clark
A Splendid Note from Liene:
I’ve been fortunate to have worked with wedding pros from 94 countries over my career and I’ve heard from a ton of them these past several months – all with similar questions, stories of lost business, uncertainties of what to say to clients who are completely stressed.
We’re all in this together. If you have questions on Coronavirus and your wedding business, feel free to email me at hello@thinksplendid.com.
I’ll be sharing my answers here on the Think Splendid blog so that everyone can benefit. I’ll also keep your name anonymous. Totally free, no strings attached – I truly do not care if you never hire me.
Focus on the Splendid
We're an industry that makes our living by celebrating life's milestones, so I'm going to start each of these update posts with a few positive COVID-19 things we can all smile about:
TOTAL GLOBAL RECOVERIES
The number of global recoveries is now more than 5,290,000 people.
This question is from a luxury wedding planner
Hi Liene,
I'm not sure if you're still answering Covid questions, but I would be grateful for some advice.
I have a client who originally had a destination wedding planned in France this June but we were thankfully able to move the wedding to October. Then this week I heard the news that the EU is banning American travelers.
The couple lives in Europe but I live in the United States. Several of their vendors are also Americans, including their photographer. What happens if this travel ban is still in effect in October and we are not allowed in the country?
This is a dream wedding for me not just because of the destination but because I have always wanted to work with this photographer. I was relieved when my client originally chose to move the wedding rather than cancel, but now I don't know what to do.
I haven't approached my client about this yet as I want to make sure I do so in the best way and I don't want to upset them unnecessarily.
Any advice you have is greatly appreciated.
Answer from Liene
First, let me say that it’s okay to be upset about this. It’s okay to be upset about lost income, it’s okay to be upset about the uncertainty, and it’s okay to be upset that American citizens have been failed by their leaders on multiple levels when it comes to how COVID-19 has been handled here.
When it became clear in March that COVID would interrupt business worldwide, you stressed, regrouped, and now it’s looking like the regrouping isn’t going to go according to plan, either. It’s okay to be upset about it all.
If I ever write a memoir, it’s going to be titled, “My Baggage Comes As a Matching Set and My Pity Parties are Catered.” One thing I know for sure from my life’s share of challenges is that nothing is ever fully in our control.
We stay authentically optimistic not because our positive thoughts can control what the universe sends our way (they don’t and they can’t), but because doing so allows our minds to stay open to seeing opportunities that cynicism would cause us to miss.
It’s okay to be upset, but please don’t set up camp there. Throw yourself a pity party for 20 minutes and then get back to work. Use the facts that are currently available to us to create a plan, and then create several backup plans, and then hold those plans loosely.
UNDERSTANDING THE EU COUNCIL’S TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
According to the press release issued today by the EU Council, restrictions on non-essential travel will be lifted beginning Wednesday, July 1st for visitors living in certain countries.
The United States is NOT on that list, and for good reason.
Aside from President Trump’s remarks in Tulsa that testing “makes us look bad” so he told his people to “slow the testing down” (the White House said he was “obviously kidding” but then Trump said, “I don’t kid”), the decision by (some) leaders at local levels to re-open and lift restrictions before it was safe to do so has resulted in a surge of outbreaks.
In Washington, health officials have stated that “Parties, not protests, are causing spikes in Coronavirus” and that contact tracing is showing that “the social events and gatherings, these parties where people aren’t wearing masks, are our primary source of infection” and “we have not been able to connect a single case to that rally or to the protest, and what we're finding is in large part that's due to the use of masks.”
In Florida, which recently had more new cases than all of Europe, a scientist was fired for not manipulating COVID-19 data to look more favorable.
The governor of Arizona, who was slow to implement social distancing measures in the first place, ordered yesterday that a slate of businesses close down a second time for another 30 days since “new cases have been increasing at a faster rate than testing has been increasing, indicating community spread” and the state is now reporting a record number of cases.
We are still in the first wave of Coronavirus in the US and it is understandable that the European Union is taking measures to protect its citizens.
That said, it’s important to understand that the EU Council’s restrictions will be reviewed every two weeks as progress (or lack thereof) in each of the permitted countries and countries not currently on the list is reevaluated.
This means that if the US can get its act together in relation to Covid and be able to meet the EU’s criteria, the ban may be lifted by October and you’ll be able to travel.
It’s also important to note that this ban applies to residents of the US. If you are an American citizen living in Canada or Australia, or another permitted country, you are still able to travel to Europe. They are not banning all Americans outright, they are banning residents of countries that do not yet meet the health criteria.
WHAT TO DO IF THE TRAVEL BAN IS STILL IN EFFECT
Since one of the things we can’t control is how the current leaders respond to this crisis, or how our fellow citizens will adhere to social distancing and mask wearing measures, you’ll need to have a contigency plan for the chance American residents still won’t be permitted entry in October.
If your clients’ guest list includes a large number of American guests traveling from the States, it may be best to move the wedding to a new date in 2021. I realize that moving the date a third time is not ideal, but if your clients want their American guests in attendance, rescheduling is your best option.
If the only people impacted are yourself and the other American wedding vendors, and your clients want to keep their October date, you realistically have two choices:
Refund the client any money collected for work not yet completed and recommend a local wedding planner who can help them.
It is not your job nor your place to cancel for the other vendors affected, but if they do cancel, it would be a good faith move to help the client find quality local wedding pros who can replace them.Continue on as the primary planner for the wedding, and subcontract a local planner you trust to execute the wedding in a “day-of planner” capacity.
You would still be doing the normal planning and design work, confirming vendors, placing orders, etc, but you would obviously not be onsite for the install or wedding day/weekend itself.
If possible, I recommend the second option as you can then gauge where the restrictions are at every two weeks and make the decision on whether or not you’ll need to implement the local “day of planner” option much closer to the wedding date.
While this isn't ideal, we're not in a perfect scenario right now, and it's better to lose some money by subcontracting and paying someone local to help you than to lose the wedding all together.
CHOOSING A WEDDING PLANNER TO SUBCONTRACT
If you've invested in wedding conferences or networking groups in the past, this is one way the relationships you've built from those can really give you strong ROI and where the concept of #communityovercompetition can really shine.
Which planners do you personally know in Europe (or Canada or Australia or another “permitted country”) that can execute this wedding to your level of skill and expertise? Reach out to them first.
If you don’t know any personally, ask your wedding pro friends for recommendations of planners they trust. This can be either from them having a relationship with them through conferences or through working with them on past destination weddings.
Turn to Instagram or Facebook last. There is a lot of smoke and mirrors on social media and some people who are good at marketing aren’t necessarily good at the actual work or are a ball of frazzled energy on the day of rather than the cool, calm, and collected experience you typically provide. You want someone who can represent your brand on the wedding day to your professional standards, from executing complex logistics to maintaining a “never let them see you sweat” demeanor.
IRONING OUT THE DETAILS
I recommend having a subcontractor agreement in writing, even if the wedding planner you’re hiring is a friend (especially if they are a friend) so that you can avoid any potential miscommunication and hurt feelings later on. The agreement should include:
Their responsibilities in relation to the wedding and what you’re expecting them to handle
Your brand standards and dress codes
Their fee amount and your payment schedules
What they’re allowed to share about the wedding, including what they may post on social media, when they can post it, and how to credit their role.
For social media, an example credit might be:
Custom Wedding Planning and Design: Sally Anne Events
Wedding Day Coordinator: Nathalie Smith Events
Floral Design Concepts: Sally Anne Events
Onsite Floral Production: Bennington Flowers
If you need them to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (and if you did, then they should as well), I recommend chatting with an attorney so that you can make sure that what you have them sign is legally enforceable in their region.
Hopefully, the Covid trajectory in the US will be turned around well before October and you won’t need to implement this backup plan. If you do need it though, it is better to have it planned out ahead of time and a “go date” by which you’ll make the final decision to use it.
Questions from Wedding Pros
When I say we’re all in this together, I mean we are all in this together. I am not a blogger, I am a business consultant and speaker. This blog is not sponsored nor ad supported and is not how I make my income. Since we are all in this together, I am not charging consulting fees to answer questions related to COVID-19.
I will continue answering Coronavirus-related wedding business questions from ANY wedding, event, or hospitality professional, located anywhere in the world, here on the blog over the next few weeks and possibly longer, so that anyone, anywhere in the world can access the information they may need for their business at any time.
I’ll be continuing to work through the questions sent in so far here on the blog so that we can all navigate this together as best we can. Please send any questions you have to hello@thinksplendid.com and remember there is no such thing as a dumb question.
I’ll be keeping the names anonymous so you don’t have to worry about being attached to a question in a Google search or in case you don’t want a colleague or competitor to know what’s on your mind.
Written by
LIENE STEVENS
Liene Stevens, the founder and CEO of Think Splendid, is an author, speaker, and award-winning business strategist. Armed with $2000, a healthy work ethic, and an undeserved dose of privilege, Liene bootstrapped Think Splendid from a scribble in a notebook to a successful wedding business consulting firm with a client list spanning 94 countries.
