Courtesy / Darling Photography
Jessika Brooks-Brewer
Updated: July 14, 2020
No nuptial bliss: Maine's wedding businesses look to expand the guest list
Courtesy / Stone Cove Catering
A group of more than 120 businesses in Maine’s wedding industry, including Stone Cove Catering, seen here, is asking the Mills administration to increase the gathering limit from 50 to 125 people for weddings taking place after Aug. 1.
A group of more than 120 businesses in Maine’s wedding industry wants the Mills administration to expand the state's limit on the size of social gatherings.
A July 8 letter asks Gov. Janet Mills to increase the cap from 50 to 125 people for weddings taking place after Aug. 1. The businesses said the nature of wedding venues and the way wedding vendors collaborate with clients allow for safe operations and minimize risk in the face of the pandemic.
Weddings inject $937 million a year into the Maine economy, supporting 13,600 jobs, according to a 2019 analysis by the University of Southern Maine’s Maine Center for Business and Economic Research.
The industry lost the first two-thirds of the 2020 wedding season, resulting in a loss of revenue in the range of $600 million or more, according to the letter to the Mills administration. Couples have cited the 50-person limit, as well as quarantine requirements, as their primary motivations to cancel, the letter said.
“Because of the group size limitation in Maine, we’re seeing a pretty significant impact,” Jessika Brooks-Brewer, owner and CEO of French's Point in Stockton Springs, told Mainebiz.
French’s Point is a private estate that’s marketed as a “blank canvas venue” and is rented to one group at a time, primarily for weddings. Weddings average 80 to 150 people. Couples tend to book 12 to 18 months in advance.
The venue had 33 weddings scheduled from April through November. Most have canceled or postponed through the end of August, she said. Others have downsized their guest list to meet the 50-person requirement. Many spring and summer clients moved their weddings to fall or winter, and some to 2021.
“It’s not only the impact this year,” she said. “We should be booking 2021 and 2022 now, and that’s slowed, too, because everyone’s nervous about booking in Maine because of the limits on guest counts.”
Some clients are moving their wedding to other states that allow larger gatherings, she added.
“One of our wedding clients said, ‘We’ll just have the wedding in New Hampshire, where there’s no issue with group size.' We have those conversations over and over. We’re losing business to other regions. Testing and quarantine period are not the bone the wedding industry needs to pick. It’s the group size limitation.”
The state’s reopening plan prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people in June and calls for continuing the prohibition through August.
The letter to Mills said the industry is different from large, public gatherings such as concerts and sports.
The distinctions, according to the letter, include:
• As private gatherings, weddings involve people already likely to interact.
• Weddings provide natural opportunities to spread out guests and encourage smaller groupings, for example, at dining tables.
• Unlike public gatherings of strangers, wedding venues control guest lists before and after events, allowing for the narrowing of lists based on risk factors and communication of expectations to guests before, during and after the event.
• The relationships among guests create a sense of social obligation for self-monitoring and communication for post-event follow-up in the event of suspected transmission.
• Most wedding venues in Maine are set up outdoors.
Immense responsibility
The letter advocated for guidance specifically about private events.
“We know, for example, that couples are more than willing to revise what happens before, during and after their events so that they can be held as safely as possible,” the letter said. “In fact, these families feel immense responsibility for bringing loved ones into safe and controlled environments.
"As an industry, we too are ready, willing, and able to work alongside the state and our clients to do the work to ensure events can take place as safely as possible.”
The letter was signed by 120 venue owners, caterers, planners, other small businesses and state legislators.
They included Sarah and Todd Maurer, owners of Stone Cove Catering and 1812 Farm, a catering business and wedding venue, respectively, in Bristol. The Maurers also own a restaurant called King Eider's Pub in Damariscotta.
“Right now the real problem, especial for wedding that are scheduled in the fall, is the gathering limit of 50,” Sarah Maurer said. “Most couples could live with 100, 125 guests. But getting to 50 is pretty tough.”
The wedding industry consists of a network of businesses, she said. Directly related to the ceremony, they include the venue, caterer, photographer, disc jockey or band, florist, cake, dress and tuxedo provider, and transportation. Then there’s lodging, meals and shopping by the guests.
“We’re a thriving industry that’s hugely important to the state and to the tourism economy,” she said.
It’s not easy to “pivot” the wedding industry, she added. While the Maurers’ restaurant was able to open quickly after the state issued safety guidance, most weddings are planned a year or more in advance.
“A lot of our events are destination weddings,” she said. Some have chosen to get married and then do a one-year anniversary next year, so we’ve worked with them to try to pivot.”
Multilevel problem
However, she explained, postponements push the problem to 2021, which is already at least partially booked given the lengthy nature of the planning process.
“It’s a multilevel problem for a lot of us in the industry,” she said.
In Topsham, 111 Maine Catering, which is owned by Jennifer Banis and Ian Talmage, was fully booked for 2020 and partially for 2021.
“The venues have had a difficult time rebooking because most of them were already booked for 2021 on the prime Saturdays, so they don’t have anywhere to shift to,” Jennifer Banis said.
The business has so far lost $700,000, about 60% of its yearly revenue.
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Anonymous
July 15, 2020
My daughter-in-law just bought a million dollar catering business a year ago. She is devastated. She has already lost over a million and continues every day to keep her employees with the hope she can continue her business. Please allow wedding to start up again.
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