Over the course of the past year, most people’s lives have been put on hold. That includes those looking to say “I do.”
“That day was just about Gerald and I,” said Yvonne Tiller, recently married.
Tiller married her best friend at the end of January. The ceremony was held in their backyard after being rescheduled four times.
“It was really intimate and really nice for us to have our close, close family there and a couple of friends and we stayed within all the guidelines, everyone wore masks and it was important to us to still do it on that day,” said Tiller.
For couples like Tiller and her husband, Royal Ashburn Golf Club general manager Scott Paterson says “we want the show to go on.”
Weddings have been conducted at the club for about 50 years. On average 75 to 100 couples are married a year between its two banquet rooms.
But over the past 12 months, it’s been a handful.
“I think we’re all scrambling to try and figure out what we can do and how we can look after people and from our perspective what we’re doing is just trying to provide options,” said Paterson.
It might not look like much now but work is being done on an outside venue, something Paterson and his team came up with in January.
“We’re building a large 40-by-80 outdoor space. It will all be landscaped out there, there will be an interlocking stone floor, so that’s 3,200 square feet,” said Paterson.
The new outdoor event space will be ready to go in May. Capacity is up to 300 or whatever the government restrictions allow. As for bookings, they have already been coming in.
“The number one reason this came to be is we wanted to provide a solution and look after the existing brides that we have,” said Paterson.
Shani Dion, who has been planning weddings and events for the past five years, says most of her clients moved their big day last year to 2021.
“Fifty people is what we’re looking at safety zone at this point,” said Dion, the director of Dion Events.
“Some are just planning for those smaller weddings now and then what are we going to do and how are we going to make those work within the pandemic and make everybody feel safe there.”
As for Tiller, she and her husband are planning on having a vow renewal next January, a celebration to share with more loved ones.