Celebrations of all kinds have been put on hold because of COVID-19.
For some brides, the uncertainty is becoming too much.
Kelsey Lacroix met her fiancé Jerome through mutual friends at work. She lived in Edmonton and he was in Calgary.
“One day he saw my picture and said, ‘Who’s that?'” Lacroix said. “He drove up to Edmonton every single weekend for a year when we started dating.”
The couple were supposed to tie the knot last summer. The decision to postpone wasn’t an easy one.
“Hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of discussion about can we? Should we? Do we? What do we do?”
Lacroix felt like it was the responsible thing to do. She thought things would be better this year and she could have her dream wedding.
On Friday, Premier Jason Kenney announced benchmarks (rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations) that would need to met before further restrictions were eased. The four-step plan lists wedding receptions in Step 4, when Alberta reaches 150 hospitalizations and declining.
Other brides felt the same.
Taylor Hollinshead met her fiancé Tyler MacDonald more than five years ago.
“He made some silly joke about my favourite show and has been making me laugh ever since,” she said.
They got engaged last summer with hopes of getting married during the summer of 2021. Hollinshead wanted to make sure that family from Scotland and Saskatchewan could be at the wedding.
With current travel restrictions in place, that meant postponing.
But the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 has been stressful.
“At one point, we just said, ‘Maybe we’ll go down to the courthouse and be done with it.'”
Wedding dates are already filling up. The Foundry Room in Edmonton is booking into 2023.
“That first call that comes in makes us go, ‘Oh wow, that’s happening,'” said Sandra Holmes, operations manager at the Foundry Room.
Holmes said it’s not uncommon for weddings to book two years in advance. She’s unsure if this round has to do with postponed dates or long engagements. But this time, weekends are filling up fast.
“Double, even triple wedding weekends. It’s going to be busy, in the best way!”
Hollinshead said she hasn’t put any deposits down for her planned summer 2022 wedding yet.
“I’m a little afraid of what’s going to happen. I keep trying to push it off a little more and see if things are going to change,” she said.
“But I’m getting to the point where I just have to do it. Take the leap and hope it will all work out.”
So, what advice do these brides-to-be have for those newly engaged? It’s simple: be patient, especially if you’re planning a big wedding.
“If you want those 300-500 people weddings, just wait,” Lacroix said. “You’re going to be with that person for the rest of your life anyways.”
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