COVID-19 put a hold on a lot of things, including many couples' plans to get married. Now that wedding season is approaching, folks are looking forward to tying the knot.
“Okay, we’re going from Lopez to Ramos!' said bride-to-be Brenda Lopez.
On September 8 2021, it will be official. Lopez says she was over the moon when her longtime boyfriend, Daniel Ramos, popped the question last year. However, after the proposal came the stress of wedding planning.
“The very first conversation that we had was, do we want to have a wedding? Do we want to just elope because of COVID?" Lopez remembered.
The love birds have decided to have a wedding in the fall. Lopez says her soon-to-be hubby is happily involved with every detail of their special day.
“We’ve booked a venue, DJ, food, the florist, the day-of coordinator, so I feel like we’re on a good streak of getting things done,” Lopez said.
With more couples like Lopez and Ramos getting ready to say I do, the wedding industry is starting to rebound after a year of cancellations and postponements due to COVID-19. It's welcomed news for wedding planners like Renee Chamberlin-White, especially after last year.
“A year ago, all of my remaining summer and spring weddings canceled,” said Chamberlin-White.
In April 2020, the owner of Dream Events had to cancel all of her bookings for weddings through June, but a year later, things are looking up.
Chamberlin-White says she has at least two weddings booked each month until the end of the year. Her rental services, like tents, chairs and other wedding decor, is almost fully booked every weekend of 2021.
“When COVID hit, I started kind of racking my brain saying what can we do to still let people celebrate? So, we went to the micro wedding route, and so we made micro wedding packages. We did our first micro wedding last July," explained Chamberlin-White. "We also do rentals as well. So we don’t just do planning. I think I’ll probably we have two weddings every month for the rest of the year. For rentals, we’re booked.”
Chamberlin-White plans to continue to be a part of creating that fairy tale experience while being safe.
“We’re still doing all the things that we started last year, and it’s going really well," she said.
As for Lopez, she’s just ready to be a Ramos.
“And of course I’m excited to marry him. I’m just happy. It’s been over five years," said Lopez.
