Wedding planners ‘over the moon’
Easing COVID rules on larger events would mean business for florists, venues, and more
Ruth Ridgeway spent part of her Thursday afternoon walking a couple through their upcoming bridal arrangements.
The three discussed the Greenwich duo’s vision for their wedding day and talked about the design, decor, lighting, and floral arrangements they wished to have at the event.
Ridgeway’s job, which also includes prop building, fabric drapery and other affairs, was challenging, at best, before COVID-19. And the pandemic has impacted almost every part of her business, forcing her, at times, to calm down couples who become distraught about rescheduling their wedding. It has also forced her to find creative ways to host events despite the pandemic.
“We’re always booked. And in one day, that just shut down,” Ridgeway said about temporarily closing her Fairfield-based floral and event design company back in March. “It just stopped. We were basically asked by the state of the Connecticut to stop doing what we were doing, and of course, we obliged.”
On Tuesday, Gov. Ned Lamont said his administration is considering expanding the capacity of private, social, and recreational events at commercial venues on March 19, if COVID-19 infection rates remain low and stable, which seems likely. On Wednesday, Connecticut’s daily COVID-19 positivity rate fell below 2 percent, the lowest single-day figure since mid-October.
If the positivity rates stay low, and if the easing of restrictions on commercial events is approved by the governor, the expansion would cap attendance at 50 percent capacity, or 100 people, at indoor events. It would also bring capacity at outdoor venues to 200 people max, the governor said.
If approved, the change would affect scores of business owners and their employees around Connecticut, including florists, musicians, photographers, tenting and lighting personnel, transportation businesses, hair and makeup artists, caterers, design staff, wedding planners, and more.
“Everyone is so happy and over the moon,” said Ashley Douglass, owner and creative director of the Greenwich-based company, Ashley Douglass Events & Wedding Planners.
“They feel comfortable,” she said. “They feel like they can move forward — and knock on wood, they’re not going to be shut down.”
But the plight of events industry leaders won’t be entirely erased if the governor eases restrictions on commercial events. Under the new guidelines, business leaders would be tasked with re-imagining their planning strategies entirely.
First, they must help clients “put a lot of thought” into their guest lists, Douglass said, using weddings, as an example.
For larger weddings, especially, she encourages her bridal parties to create three different invitation lists — one with 75 attendees, another listing 150 people, and one comprising 200 loved ones. This way, if COVID-19 infections rates spike or plummet unexpectedly, the couple would be prepared to quickly pivot to a new plan, shortly before their wedding day.
Couples must also decide whether they wish to have an outdoor component, which brings the risk of inclement weather but can also alleviate the worries of attendees who feel uncomfortable being indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.
And then, at the actual event, some couples are faced with a seating dilemma. Do you go with pods, where families are grouped together, or the more typical sideby-side rows?
Some couples make COVID PCR testing mandatory ahead of their wedding, while others have rapid testing on site. For the latter group, that requires potentially staggering the arrival times of guests so they can wait in a holding area, which
must also be created.
That creates a need for Douglass to bring in more of her staff, which increases her business expenses.
“It’s extra work. It is,” she said. “I mean, we’re happy that we’re able to have weddings happen. Don’t get me wrong. We just have to account for it in the prior planning.”
But for some in the event industry, the governor’s decision will have little impact.
“I haven’t had the COVID vaccine, (but) I’m on the list,” said Jacqueline Johnson, a romantic marketing expert and CEO of Stamford-based Global Bridal Group.
Johnson — who focuses on the “marketing of weddings to international markets” — leads a team of designers, on-air talent, developers, writers, and legal consultants. Before the pandemic, she regularly attended and presented at events around Connecticut, such as trade
shows. But since her last speaking engagement in the Caribbean a year ago, she has not conducted any business, she said.
And the easing of COVID restrictions on business-related events isn’t going to change her mind — not until she’s personally vaccinated.
“Until such time, I’m staying put,” she said.
Although Johnson plans to lay low, she and Douglass agree that expanding the capacity at commercial events would have a positive impact on the economy.
“It is a huge industry in really every state, but weddings bring billions of dollars into the U.S. economy, maybe even up to a trillion,” Douglass said. “Then, you add other events on top of that. Larger conventions, corporate events and conferences, are a large part of the economy as well.”
And she’s right. According to Allied Market Research, a market
research and advisory company, the events industry size was valued at $1.135 trillion in 2019 and is expected to reach $1.553 trillion by 2028. Because of the COVID pandemic, the virtual events industry is also expected to grow from $78 billion to $774 billion by 2030, according to Cision PR Newswire, a press release distribution network.
“I think this is exactly what the industry needs,” Ridgeway said of Lamont’s announcement about considering capacity expansion at commercial events. “I think it’s going to very much help the economic space of the events industry.”
And with people itching to get out and host celebrations and parties, Ridgeway predicts, just like after the Spanish flu, a resurgence of events: the modern-day Roaring ’20s.
STAMFORD — The former Stamford Academy on North Street is about to be the new home for the school district’s Anchor program.
The former site of the charter high school, located at 229 North St., was on the city’s shortlist of properties to sell once the school shuttered in 2019. But school officials decided to keep the building in the city’s possession as the lease on the current location for the Anchor program on Southfield Avenue is about to expire.
The Anchor program is meant for struggling middle and high school students — either because they experience repeated discipline problems or face depression, school phobia or anxiety. The program has just under 100 students.
The city will spend $2.4 million to bring the 12,000-square-foot North Street building up to code and get it ready for occupancy in the fall. A full interior renovation, which would be a much more expensive project, could come later down the road.
City Engineer Lou Casolo said an architect is currently working on the project and coming up with a design for the work. A request for proposal will be released in the coming months, with a contract awarded in April. Construction would follow in May, with a completion target date in September, Casolo said.
The work will involve mechanical improvements, new railings and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant equipment, as well as an asbestos abatement.
“The work we’re doing now is all the renovations needed to get the children and staff in,” he said.
At a recent Board of Education meeting, member Jackie Pioli questioned the new location of
the program, saying she was “disappointed” that the district would choose a “building across the street from the police station for an alternative school for our students.”
Superintendent Tamu Lucero said the district had looked at a location in Hubbard Heights as a potential new home for the Anchor program, but that plan fell through once another organization
signed a long-term lease there.
The potential full renovation of the North Street location is one of three projects the city is hoping to secure state funding for in the short term.
The biggest one, by far, is the renovation or replacement of Westhill High School, estimated to cost $125 million.
The other is the building at 83 Lockwood Ave.,
which used to be the home of the Trailblazers Academy and is owned by the city.
That project would involve a complete renovation or tear down, and would cost around $60 million. There are currently around 400 students who attend preschool in the building.
Other school needs are not as clear, which is why the city recently submitted
a request for proposals for a vendor to develop a facilities master plan, with an eye on approving it in the first half of 2022. At a recent school board meeting, Stamford Asset Management Group member Cindy Grafstein said the city had already received 11 proposals.