It’s tough to describe 2020 accurately. The most unbelievable things happened this year, both good and bad.
Who would have thought a pandemic would wreak havoc on the lives of billions of people? Certainly not us. We started 2020 off by helping people celebrate with weddings, new years parties, and companies throwing employee appreciation parties. The last thing on our minds was the world shutting down to stop the spread of a virus.
In March, we couldn’t believe the world had come to a standstill and that we were in the middle of a global pandemic. There were travel restrictions and grounded flights which meant we had couples and their loved ones who planned their Lake Tahoe destination wedding, which they couldn’t make it to. The wedding and events industry came to a halt. We never thought our livelihood would be at stake. It felt like we just needed to leave our jaws on the floor after many jaw-dropping headlines.
In the many years we’ve worked in this wedding industry, we’ve only had a handful of couples who canceled their wedding for one reason or another. In 2020, we had over 40 couples postpone their wedding while over 10 couples flat out canceled their wedding. It was one tough conversation after another as our couples phoned in one by one, wondering how we would handle weddings during a pandemic. Brides were in tears as they broke the news to us about the change in their wedding date. We absolutely felt their devastation.
Our hearts hurt for our couples as they faced one challenge after another with their attempts to change their wedding date. Many couples faced the difficulties of finding vendors to step in on their new date due to their original vendor being booked. Thankfully for our team, we have multiple services and multiple teams, which made shifting wedding dates for our clients a little less stressful.
In the midst of all this sadness and frustration, there was this light that only love can bring. As we came out of spring in May and made our way into June, restrictions on gatherings eased, which allowed for people to resume gathering again but on a much smaller scale.
Couples contacted us excitedly to let us know they wanted to get married ASAP as they knew having a large party was no longer in their plans but an intimate wedding ceremony with a few of their very closest was most certainly doable. Others decided keeping their wedding date was very important to them, so we helped them elope or have a small ceremony. Seeing these couples maneuver through these 2020 wedding planning challenges along with everything else 2020 threw at the world makes us feel confident that they’ll be able to withstand challenges that may come up in their marriages.
The feelings at weddings were most certainly different from weddings in the past, but all in a good way. Because the amount of people allowed at gatherings has been kept to a minimum, couples have opted to have their family and closest friends witness their nuptials. The feeling is more relaxed and as loving as ever.
One of our favorite things about weddings in 2020 is all the dogs that get to partake in the wedding festivities since many couples have needed to pivot to a private residence/backyard for their wedding ceremony and reception. Many of these pups showed up to the big day in their best wedding attire.
At the end of 2020, we had 4 couples who were able to keep their original wedding date and 2 were able to get married in 2020 after postponing their spring wedding. With the lack of events this year, we took the time to enjoy the simpler things like hiking along the many trails available to us in Lake Tahoe or playing in Tahoe’s crisp, blue waters. Now we have new places to recommend to our couples for hiking locations or great photo op spots around the lake.
2020 has been a tough year but we’ve learned that love and a whole lot of perseverance will get you through anything.
Click here to view one of our favorite weddings of 2020.
