VE NUES W ITH A VIEW Last issue, Jill Eckersley talked to wedding planners to gauge the changes they are finding in previously-made but now postponed celebrations. This time round, she’s been speaking to venues to establish the difference they have found in bookings
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s yet, we have no way of knowing how Covid-19 will eventually impact on our industry. Dress designers, retailers, planners, venues, and assorted businesses from florists to photographers are still – at the time of writing – left guessing. But one thing is for sure, as we put 2020 behind us and look forward to 2021, people are still going to want to get married, and to celebrate their special day with those they love. Bridal is an industry which has
always looked ahead, and that is especially true now. We have been consulting wedding venues and asking their experts just how their bookings for the coming year are shaping up, given that many couples have been forced by lockdowns to postpone their celebrations. Are these couples staying with the plans they had made for 2020, or are they nervous about job losses and looking at a more restricted budget? If they are cutting down, what aspects of the wedding are going by the board?
Stoke Park
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And are couples who were always thinking about a 2021 date looking for a different style of wedding, perhaps a more modest one? Are popular dates – ie May to July – booking up fast or does there seem to be a lot of hesitation? Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire is a luxury five-star venue just West of London, set in 300 acres of parkland with eight ‘wedding rooms’ in a white Palladian mansion and gardens by Capability Brown. They cater for
