– it’s what we do! I’m beginning to organise everything from marquees to loos. We have to be organised even when it means nagging and crosschecking everything. We have to get back into working habits. “Our clients are being patient, so it’s down to us to ensure that in 2022 everything can go smoothly. I’m finding that caterers are short-staffed right now. Also, that when you work with an international crowd as I do, you have to be aware of any present or future travel restrictions. For example right now, Chinese and other Asian guests can come to weddings in the UK, but must spend 21 days in quarantine in a Chinese hotel on their return.” Personally I wouldn’t feel comfortable going to a wedding right now, unless it was very small with social distancing and no dancing. Couples can still marry, of course they can, but many have chosen to save their major celebrations until next year. Emiliana Gualtieri founded wedding planner Amoretti back in 2008. The company specialises in weddings in beautiful venues around London and also luxury destination weddings in Italy. Although the pandemic has meant lean times for the company in comparison to the pre-2020 scene, The Government washed its hands Emiliana is now confident that the of us and produced no protocols, industry has turned the corner. as it did for theatres and concert “We work a year in advance at venues. In this industry it was down to least, and in the past year we haven’t individuals to do the right thing. done as many weddings as we had “My business has played its part. Weddings couldn’t take priority when planned to,” she says. “Now, though, people were dying, and as a business we are finding that the clients have owner I felt it was on my shoulders to much more confidence and just want to get on with their new lives. make sure everyone was safe. I did a “Last year, I think they were small event in September, for which everyone involved had to test and be all hoping that Covid would just disappear. Now they know that it checked at the door. I would not be comfortable doing large events yet. I won’t and everyone has to adjust to want a safe environment for my team what they’re calling ‘the new normal’. – the bar staff, the florist, the waiters, One hundred per cent of our clients are ready to celebrate!” the security – as well as clients and Amoretti is very much a high-end their guests. company and Emiliana has found “Having said that, I am sure that her clients are not expecting any weddings will be back next year as corners to be cut. before. Planners plan ahead anyway
Forward Planning
With celebrations on and off, date changes, and the disappointments of past months, wedding planners’ diaries are now filling up for 2022 and what promises to be a very good year. Jill Eckersley talked to three key players
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hen we spoke to highend London-based wedding planner Mark Niemierko back in 2020, about the impact the pandemic was having on the wedding industry, he predicted that 2022 was going to be a ‘boom year’ for weddings. There would be new clients, as well as those who had postponed at least some of their celebrations for a year or two. So how is Mark feeling now, as the industry moves slowly and cautiously back to something approaching ‘normality? “Well, as I only do about five weddings a year I can’t speak for the whole industry,” Mark says, “but my events will only be happening from about April 2022 – which means a shutdown of two years.
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