Wedding bells sound more optimistic note as curbs lifted
The lifting of Covid-19 restrictions on indoor events has come too late for this year’s wedding season, but those in the industry are optimistic that events will be able to be run as planned next summer.
After the uncertainty of the past two years, Nelson wedding celebrant and MC Emma Helleur said many couples were still ‘‘really anxious’’ about making plans.
Helleur has weddings booked in for the end of the year, but said those potentially planning to tie the knot were still worried about further changes to the rules, and the possibility of having to cull the guest list.
However, an encouraging sign was a booking from a Singapore couple who were coming to Nelson to get married at the end of October, when all border restrictions are scheduled to be lifted.
‘‘New Zealand was such a destination wedding location, and to have these emails coming through is definitely a positive sign,’’ Helleur said.
A trend she had seen during the Covid restrictions was couples opting for ‘‘elopements’’ – but this didn’t mean not telling Mum or Dad.
Rather, the term – used frequently on wedding pages on Facebook – had ‘‘taken on a whole new meaning’’ in the past few years, she said.
‘‘Elopement used to mean ‘Let’s get married and not tell anybody’. Now it’s just the couple with some witnesses, a couple of friends, and that’s it.
‘‘I think it’s just to mitigate the fact that you might have to either cancel your wedding or change it or uninvite guests, so doing the really simple – the couple, the celebrant, and the two witnesses – has become quite popular.’’
Helleur has done 29 weddings since last October. Of those, four fit into the ‘‘elopement’’ category, while seven or eight ceremonies had just 10 guests, she said.
‘‘Couples realised it was going to be quite a long time until the borders opened for them to be able to share it with their family, so they decided just to get it over and done with, and just go get married and then have the party at a later date.’’
Atahuia Wedding and Events owner operator Huia Rentoul said that after the lifting of Covid restrictions on outdoor events last month, people had again started to get in touch and make bookings.
‘‘We can go ahead and lock things in and lock venues in, and know that it’s going to run like it’s meant to now.’’
Helleur said New Zealand was now in the wedding planning season, and the coming months would provide an indication of how next summer was going to run.
Marriage, she said, was still the ‘‘end goal’’, though weddings were very different from how they were even a decade ago.
‘‘A lot of my couples are in their mid-20s to early 30s, they’ve got their kids, they’ve been together for a long time, so it’s no longer that ‘Date for two years, get engaged, and get married and then start from there’.’’
Backyard weddings with pareddown guest lists, ceremonies at which dad no longer walked the bride down the aisle, and ceremonies that did not feature religion were trends she had been seeing.
The use of technology has also enabled guests abroad to attend. Laptops, iPads, Facebook Live and Zoom were now regular fixtures at weddings.
Rentoul said she had one bride who rented a hotel room for relatives in England, and ordered gift boxes and breakfasts. The family watched the ceremony live together in celebratory style.
She said wedding Facebook groups were becoming common, in which couples shared photos and special moments with family members abroad.
Some couples were quite happy to go for a smaller after-wedding function because of restrictions, she said. ‘‘People were almost thankful they could cull their weddings down and save some money without looking like the bad guy.’’ One couple were actually ‘‘quite stoked’’ when they had to reduce their guest list from 140 to 70 people.
Helleur said the wedding industry was a space that ‘‘has struggled and adapted over the last two years’’.
‘‘Weddings were super-spreader events – we understood the need for restrictions.
‘‘Brides and grooms have just had so many unbelievable ups and downs trying to get married, but the biggest thing is they’re still getting married. They’ve taken it on the chin, made the changes they’ve had to, and they’ve just gone ... ‘Let’s do it’.’’
‘‘We can go ahead and lock things in and lock venues in, and know that it’s going to run like it’s meant to now.’’ Huia Rentoul,
Atahuia Wedding and Events