Here’s what you need to prepare for.
Let’s talk about the Delta Variant (and the more severe Lamba Variant spreading in Latin America) and what these mean for your business and the broader wedding industry.
WHERE WE’RE AT
It’s been a long 19 months since we first learned of Covid's existence, and a long 16 months since the world first collectively shut down. While the trauma and stress has impacted everyone regardless of career or social status, the wedding industry was one of the hardest hit economically. After all, gathering people together in large groups is literally what wedding professionals do.
Depending on where you live in the world, you may either still be under lockdown or movement order restrictions because you don’t have the vaccine yet or you may be back to work with events in some capacity.
In the United States, because of the now ubiquitous access to vaccines*, weddings are largely back.
Being at home crystallized people’s priorities and refocused them on what matters most. Weddings tend to get written off as frivolous, but weddings represent love, hope, commitment, family, and community. For many people, these are values worth celebrating and spending money on.
Couples who were told to plan for 20% of their guest list to decline on the RSVP are finding that 100% of their guests are RSVPing “yes.” (This is now causing other issues with their booked wedding venue capacity, catering, and budget plans.)
Guests want to celebrate with the couple not just because they’ve been cooped up over the last year, but because “showing up for the people they care about” is one of their newly refocused priorities and weddings literally have the people they love all in the same room.
Outside of the US, the degree to which weddings are back varies by country and has been largely based on vaccine access. In many places where they are back, restrictions still apply, such as guest count limitations, bans on dance floors, and mandatory quarantines for people that contact tracing has identified as recently exposed to a Covid positive person as well as for guests traveling in from other countries.
WHERE WE’RE HEADED
The Delta Variant – a more contagious mutation of Covid-19 that takes only seconds instead of minutes to spread – is something that we need to take seriously, both from a health standpoint and business standpoint. Here’s a short list of what’s happening with it currently:
Spain has reinstated evening curfews in several dozen of its towns (following Portugal) and is considering other measures to curb this new spread.
Greece is requiring proof of vaccination to dine at restaurants and bars.
Indonesia, including the destination wedding hotspot Bali, has closed non-essential businesses and stores again.
Malaysia is in its third lockdown which, while scheduled to lift today, is now expected to be extended.
Los Angeles has reinstated the indoor mask mandate.
On top of all of that, in Latin America, a new variant called Lambda is the cause of a rise of cases in Peru and Chile and expected to increase in neighboring countries. It is considerably worse than the Delta Variant.
WHAT YOU NEED TO PREPARE FOR
With the way the Delta Variant and Lambda Variant are spreading and the lack of vaccine access in other parts of the world, people who have international destination weddings or events planned for this Fall or Winter need to put contingency plans in place NOW if they haven’t already.
If all of your events are local, it is still a good idea to have contingency plans in place and to keep an eye on the spread in your region so you can be on top of things for your clients.
I know this isn’t what people want to hear, but it is what it is. And it is better to be prepared for your clients and event attendees with a realistic plan B, or at this point plan L/M/N/O/P, than to say, “How could we possibly know shutdowns, border restrictions, etc would happen again?!”
In addition, given that Covid has now been a known entity for 19 months, claiming “unforeseen circumstances” is likely not going to hold up in court should a client decide to pursue legal action.
Last year, all of the wedding industry supply chain was hit, but the most impacted was floral and wedding fashion (dresses, suits, shoes, etc) as the majority of their product assortment is imported. Flower shortages are still an issue professional florists are facing (and even grocery stores have started limiting how many bunches you can buy at one time).
With the Delta Variant spreading through the shipping industry, we can expect to see more supply chain interruptions, even in cities or countries that may not be hit as hard by the Delta Variant itself.
It will be important to start figuring out other sourcing options, if you haven’t already, and coming up with alternate materials and methods to execute a client’s vision. Yes, this can be difficult, but you are a professional creative — this is what you get paid to do.
MAKING EDUCATED DECISIONS FROM A PLACE OF AUTHENTIC OPTIMISM
It is literally my entire job to advise companies on how forces and trends outside the industry will impact their wedding business strategy.
I am also really good in a crisis — it is one of my strengths. I care deeply about how Covid impacts your company, and your family, and our entire industry, which is why I share this.
I don’t have a crystal ball, but understanding the nature of diseases, human behavior, the pharmaceutical industry, supply chains, commerce, politics, foreign relations, etc can help us make educated decisions based on what could likely happen when we don’t for sure know what will happen.
Authentic optimism takes reality at face value and says, “Ok, let’s figure this out.” Toxic positivity pretends that issues don’t (or won’t) exist.
If you want to get the best possible outcome for your clients, you need to be authentically optimistic.
*In the US, you can now get a same-day walk-in vaccine appointment at CVS, Walgreens, Target, Costco, Walmart, and many other places. I strongly encourage you to get vaccinated if you haven’t already. (Everyone is different but here’s my anecdotal experience: I had two doses of Pfizer and zero side effects either time. I took a video getting the first dose and tried to upload it but it won’t let me because it is literally less than 1 second long. That’s how fast and painless it was.) if you are still on the fence, feel free to message me as I’m happy to have a conversation. I am not interested in arguing so, if that’s you, keep it moving.
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
