Wedding Bell Blues: How Scotland's marriage economy has been hit by Covid-19

Between bakers, florists, outfitters, celebrants, planners, venues, caterers and more, weddings have never been bigger business and bring in a cool £963 million to the Scottish economy each year.

Or at least, they did until this year.

The total number of ceremonies taking place this year is sure to be far lower than the annual average of 29,000.

All celebrations were off from March until June under lockdown, and there now remain strict regulations about how many people can attend. It’s currently capped at 20, including the couple, witnesses, guests and anyone employed by the couple, such as a photographer. Children under 12 also count towards the total.

The same goes for the party afterwards.

Separate households cannot mix, social distancing must be observed and singing at the ceremony is off, as is chanting or the use of any blown instruments.

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Even at that, the whole thing depends on whatever local restrictions are in place at the time of the event, meaning more heartache than happiness for many pairs at the moment.

And all of that’s having a major impact on businesses. Figures released by the Scottish Government last week show the distribution, hotels and catering sector suffered a 33.9% contraction in the second quarter of the year.

Only construction, which received a 44.1% hit as sites shut, was more badly affected.

While many of the food, venue, supplies and services firms that sell to loved-up couples also make money through other avenues, it’s accepted that a big day means big business – more money can be made through one of these bookings than trading in other ways.

The companies that the Sunday National spoke to this week told us that while summer has traditionally been regarded as wedding season, more than one-third of couples now get hitched in autumn.

But with cancellations now coming in for the latter half of the year, there are serious concerns about the impact not just on bridal shops and limo hire firms, but on many other operations.

So what is the outlook and what are traders doing to evolve their offering and adapt to these unprecedented conditions?

A wedding planner, caterer and hotelier told us the tricks of their trades.

WEDDING PLANNER

JANICE Grimley-Evans owns and manages Blue Thistle Weddings. The Perth firm organises nuptials all over the country for couples from all over the world.

While many of Grimley-Evans’ customers come from the UK, most are from elsewhere, with the lion’s share hailing from the USA, Canada, Australia and Asia.

That’s a market VisitScotland has been encouraging businesses to tap into. Around 1000 “international” couples travelled to Scotland to tie the knot in 2018, and tourism bosses have been keen to convince more to do the same and grow the country’s share of the $16 billion-a-year destination wedding market.

Working with so many couples based abroad has meant Grimley-Evans was perhaps more prepared than others for the remote working we’ve all now had to adapt to. However, the company’s use of Skype, Zoom and other video conferencing apps has still increased.

“We’ve also offered increased support over the phone to talk though the many questions and anxieties couples have due to the current uncertainties and restrictions,” she says. “It’s much easier to offer empathy and understanding in a phone or Skype call than an email.

“It’s a good idea for couples to set up their own wedding website as an easy way to keep all their guests informed of any changes that may need to be made.”

Those changes often come on top of months of work. Grimley-Evans starts a year in advance, on average, but has had to make some quick pivots in 2020. “A beautiful small wedding I planned in a few months took place last weekend,” she says. “99% of my 2020 clients have been able to reschedule their weddings to a suitable date this year.

“The process of rescheduling was the most challenging and time consuming for those clients who delayed making the decision to reschedule. This is because dates for 2021 quickly filled up and suppliers are now fitting in all or most of their 2020 weddings into an already busy 2021 calendar.

“I think it’s a credit to everyone how they have coped with the disappointment of their planned wedding date being rescheduled. I believe in many ways it’s brought people closer together, to appreciate each other more, an opportunity for families to be supportive and to look forward to the time when we can all come together again. Some couples have decided to plan smaller weddings but some of our most beautiful weddings have been the small, intimate ones.

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“I believe that very often couples plan for their wedding, but forget to plan for their marriage. Going through something like this is great practice for navigating their way through a crisis in the future, learning how to support and encourage each other through a tough time. It’s an opportunity to become even closer as a couple.”

THE CHEF

JOHN King left restaurant kitchens to set up on his own as Wild Fire Pizza four years ago. Cooking had taken him round the world but was now allowing him to work closer to home at weddings and events. Due to the Covid crunch, he’s now operating mainly from his garden in Newport-on-Tay.

“We normally rely on the wedding trade,” he says, “as well as doing pop-ups at agreed locations in Fife when I had gaps in my diary. Now I’m doing those pop-ups from home.”

King operates from a converted horsebox – a wooden panelled Instagram dream that’s normally staffed by three people. Because of Covid, he’s now cooking alone and serving up over his garden gate into Kinbrae Park. Customers must pre-order through social media for pick-up during timed slots and all payments are contactless.

It’s far more regimented than he’s used to, but he says it’s not all bad. “It’s a chef’s dream,” he says. “You always know what you’ve got and when you’ve got it. There are no surprises.

“I’m trying to bring in a living under the guidelines.

“Normally we’d try and earn during the summer. That’s when a lot of the weddings are so you work hard then try to ease off in the winter because it’s pretty miserable running a food truck when it’s cold outside and wintery. This year we’re not going to be able to stop, we’ll just have to keep going.”

Until now, as much as 75% of King’s trade has been down to weddings and events like Highland games and village galas. All of these have been off this year. There are usually lots of bookings for private parties too, with King asked to drive over to big back gardens overlooking Loch Tay or other scenic locations to cater for family, friend and corporate groups. Those enquiries are still coming in, he says, but he won’t take them – they’re not within the coronavirus rules.

“Yesterday I was asked to cater for 10 children at a birthday party,” he says. “But I can’t afford to get a bad name. One bad social media comment could sink you.

“Weddings were very lucrative for us, they were money in the bank.”

HOTELIER

AS chief executive of the Crieff Hydro Family of Hotels, Stephen Leckie has had to make unprecedented changes since March, including putting 900 staff on furlough and announcing major redundancy plans amidst losses of £500,000 per week.

There are seven sites in the portfolio, including Peebles Hydro, and keeping the plates spinning has been anything but a holiday.

“Since the rule of six came in, cancellations for self-catering have been around £200,000,” he says. “People who wanted to come and stay and eat together couldn’t do so. I’m not blaming anyone for that. The First Minister has been very good with us, she’s spent a lot of time on the phone and we had a vigorous discussion about saving lives and saving livelihoods, and she gets it.

“Crieff and Hydro are doing really well, considering that my friends, my colleagues who have other businesses are not doing really well. It’s dire for them.”

Hotels are Scotland’s favourite wedding venues and most-popular choice for receptions. Many guests choose to stay around the date, as do brides and grooms and their parties.

Leckie’s group gets its fair share, as well as conferences and other events. These are the diary-fillers that keep hotels busy at times when holiday bookings are lower.

“Nobody had a disaster plan in place for this,” he says. ‘‘A second lockdown could annihilate business. We’ll lose money but we will survive this. But if we go back into lockdown the losses will go up into the millions of pounds, which would put us in a serious risk category. My message would be to ask people to please behave – please wear your masks and follow the government guidelines.”