VENUE-SPEAK

VENUES WITH 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

As 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? 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

Stoke Park

weddings for ten guests and upward and offer civil ceremonies as well as receptions following local Church weddings.

Stoke Park’s Head of Events, Hannah Adlam, is taking an extremely positive view of the venue’s prospects for 2021.

“It does look as though our guests are sticking to their original wedding plans and budgets in the hope that all will be back to normal by next year,” she says. “We are also receiving a lot of enquiries, which is really encouraging. We don’t feel at the moment that the style of weddings will be very different next year, rather that our couples are wanting their dream day to be the one they had originally planned.

“We haven’t seen any reduction in budgets either. As we are a five-star venue most of our couples have generous budgets and from what we have seen, they are still prepared to splash out. Dates between May and July are still the most popular, and this year, in spite of everything, we have been very busy, both with enquiries and couples who are keen to come in and have a look around to see what we have to offer.”

It seems that 2021 will certainly be an interesting year to launch a brandnew wedding venue. Pan Pacific London is a striking new hotel close to Liverpool Street Station, in the heart of the City of London. The company, whose headquarters are based in Singapore, already runs luxury hotels and resorts in Asia, North America, Oceania and Europe, and specialises, they say, in “modern luxury and unsurpassed hospitality.”

Claire Bishop is their Pre-Opening Weddings and Special Events Manager, and she believes that 2021 will be a standout year for weddings. She also feels that couples will not only be changing the date of their wedding but may also change the format of their special day completely.

“Nuptials as we know them, much like all other events, will naturally diverge from traditional formats for the foreseeable future,” she says. “Trends such as virtual weddings, micro weddings, and sequel weddings – a large-scale second celebration after a smaller event the first time – will become more popular. Physical attendance at weddings will undoubtedly be less, but that doesn’t mean that the guest list for the day will be smaller, by any means.

While on the ground, attendees might just be immediate family and close friends, online platforms like Zoom will give couples the opportunity to share their day with even more guests than they had originally planned!”

Has Claire detected any difference in style between the weddings postponed from 2020 and those which were always planned to take place in 2021?

“I wouldn’t say there has been that much difference between those original bookings and what newer

leads want and expect from us,” she says. “As with everything right now, couples are understandably much more conscious of hygiene, and ensuring the health and safety of their guests, and will be for the foreseeable future. As a venue, it’s our job to ensure we have all the measures in place needed to manage their expectations. Thinking outside the box is a must, more than ever now.”

Claire also feels that wedding budgets are sure to be affected in some way.

“Undoubtedly celebrations will be scaled down,” she says. “Money can be saved on elements like the venue and/or food and drink, which could be invested in other aspects of the day, like styling or decoration. However, budgets may not be affected negatively, depending on the circumstances of the couple.

“For some, postponement may

have given them additional time to save and add to their existing budgets. Couples will, I think, be much more conscious of the choices they make. That need not mean cutting down, but being more mindful of how their money is being spent.”

As far as bookings are concerned, Claire feels that demand will be exceptionally high for 2021, because so many weddings have had to be postponed from 2020 and many were already booked for 2021.

“It may turn out to be a record year for the industry,” she says. “While the key months of May to September will always be prominent, we also envisage a number of weekday wedding requests, which have traditionally been rare. There will also be requests for the quieter months so that couples can be sure of securing the venue and suppliers they prefer.”

venues these days from the traditional 200-year-old Palladian mansion of Stoke Park, through the ultra-modern metropolitan Pan Pacific London, to the unique, 26-acre Sculpture by the Lake sculpture park, set deep in the Dorset countryside, which offers a haven of peace and tranquillity for romantic weddings.

Owner Simon Gudgeon says that in this year of extreme uncertainly, many couples want to keep their plans as flexible as possible, and that his company will always try to accommodate that.

“Some want to roll over their welllaid wedding plans but others, we find, are proceeding with more caution,” he says. “The Covid-19 lockdown seems to have triggered a reassessment of priorities for many of us. Couples just want to share their day with the people they really love, and they are also focusing on the needs and safety of guests. We are being asked about downsizing weddings and moving them outside. We’re also being asked about live-streaming ceremonies for elderly or vulnerable family members who may not be able to be there.

“Every wedding is different and unique to the couple but everyone is looking to understand the changes which social distancing may bring to their plans. We are coming up with a range of solutions from individual picnic boxes for elegant outdoor dining, to the possibilities of having open-sided marquees.

“We do feel that weddings will look and feel very different in 2021. They will likely be far smaller and more intimate, and not just because of social distancing. The pandemic has focused minds on what really matters, and that is being with the people who are most important to you. The showy ‘Big Wedding’ will be a thing of the past, at least for a while.

“We expect outdoor weddings to be more popular as open-air gatherings are thought to be safer. Our largest venue, The Retreat, has sliding doors on two sides of the building and an open-air terrace above, to take advantage of its stunning lakeside setting. Of course this means it lends itself to the requirements of the postCovid-19 wedding as well.”

Three very different venues… and three very different opinions on the kind of weddings we’ll be seeing next year. But what everyone agrees on, is that weddings themselves are absolutely not going to go out of style.

“People still want to celebrate – and so they should!” says Claire Bishop.

“Even if traditional weddings can’t happen for the foreseeable future that doesn’t mean ceremonies can’t happen. It’s becoming increasingly common for couples to celebrate their original date with a ‘minimony’, followed by a larger celebration at a later date, and I think this is something we in the industry should encourage. For the time being, destination weddings and honeymoons will be re-thought with couples opting to localise their big day. This will help to inject money back into the industry and help us all get back on our feet!”