Coronavirus and the Wedding Industry: One Texas Wedding Planned in 24 Hours

By Ashleigh Osburn

Photography By Lindsey Carr Photography

Reporting Texas

Jackson and Haleigh Winters Wedding Shoot

AUSTIN- On March 19, Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order declaring there be no more than 10 people gathered together at one time. 

Haleigh Winters from Texas, planned her wedding in 24 hours so she could get married before the executive order was in effect. 

“That was really hard on us, because we had been planning this… and I just wanted everyone to be a part of it,” said Winters. 

Winters was able to go out and get her bouquet, cake and groom’s outfit in one day. 

“I went home and it was like I was in shock. I couldn’t believe this was actually going to happen,” said Winters. 

An Austin wedding planning company, Weddings by Weaver, has been shuffling wedding dates since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 

“A lot of clients that have paid to have their weddings between March, April, May and potentially even June are now considering what it’s gonna look like,” said Kara Weaver, the owner of Weddings by Weaver. 

Weaver said clients should continue to book things like flowers, musicians, and their venue so that once business reopens, they are set. 

“The worst thing that can happen to the events industry right now is a lack of investment from the customer side because there is a lack of trust in the vendor to provide the services, whether that’s 6 months from now or 16 months from now,” said Weaver. 

The company has started to host weekly online seminars for brides and will launch a virtual wedding kit at the end of this month. 

“Our virtual wedding kit… will cover not only normal wedding planning protocols but also COVID-19 wedding planning protocols that go into place when you’re planning a wedding during a pandemic,” said Weaver. 

Austin event planning company, Pearl Events, has moved around 50 brides and has cancelled 10% of their weddings. 

Becky Levin Navarro, the founder of Pearl Events, said “I think it’s just rolling with the punches to see… it’s like we make a plan and then two weeks later it changes completely, so in our nature, it’s a really hard time for any kind of planner.”