{"id":15288,"date":"2021-12-06T09:30:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T09:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=15288"},"modified":"2022-08-26T18:59:14","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T18:59:14","slug":"cupid-vs-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=15288","title":{"rendered":"Cupid vs COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]G<\/span>etting married during the pandemic is difficult, but not impossible. Just ask Stefanie and Renato Trindade. Although there are many restrictions people have to follow while planning a wedding, there is still the possibility of that \u2018perfect\u2019 wedding day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Stefanie and Renato, who met in 2009 at Canada\u2019s Wonderland, kept in touch and became friends until they started dating in October 2015. In September 2018, Renato proposed and they began to plan their wedding for July 2020. But all that fell through.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen COVID started in March 2020, we made the tough decision to postpone our wedding until July 2021, which then turned into our postponement until October 2021,\u201d said Stefanie.<\/span><\/p>\n

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There was the possibility of a summer 2020 wedding but the situation was so new and evolving so rapidly, the decisions became more difficult.<\/span><\/p>\n

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https:\/\/youtu.be\/1Z32sYI9DcY[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\u201cIn April 2020 we were given the choice to either wait and not know what July 2020 would look like or postpone our wedding in hopes that things would be better. This caused a lot of stress and heartache as we felt like we were so close and waited so long already to get married. The stress of trying to ensure all our vendors lined up took a lot out of us as we had fears that we would have to try to find new vendors and potentially lose the deposits that we had placed in the fall of 2018,\u201d said Renato.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the end they decided the risks were too high and ultimately had to postpone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe most difficult part of all of this was having to communicate our new date and protocols to all our guests, along with the unknown of how quickly things could change,\u201d said Renato.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jessica Ricci is an event coordinator & office manager whose role is to create itineraries for 500+ events yearly ranging from birthday parties of 50 guests, to weddings of 300 guests, to corporate functions of 1500 guests.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”\u201cThe biggest challenge for vendors is staff availability as most hospitality and event staff had no choice but to move on from the industry and find work elsewhere,\u201d said Ricci.” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:30|text_align:center|color:%23f22009″ google_fonts=”font_family:Lato%3A100%2C100italic%2C300%2C300italic%2Cregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic%2C900%2C900italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Luckily for the Trindades, they had all major things booked pre-pandemic. The things that were missing, such as wedding dress fittings and suits for the groom\/groomsmen became difficult.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe stores being closed down made this extremely difficult and then once they opened, things were not any easier. This was due to the fact that there were limitations on how many people were allowed into stores or at appointments at once. It was a lot harder to get an appointment because of all the postponements and the big rush once stores were opened.\u201d There also was a shortage of certain items, such as white dress shirts and ties \u2013 assuming this was because of the closures and shipping overseas,\u201d said Stefanie.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Planning a wedding pre-pandemic was definitely a lot easier.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAs a bride or groom, booking and planning your wedding pre-pandemic was much simpler. There were plenty choices of vendors in all fields, product was readily available, there was competition amongst vendors which gave flexibility on pricing, and most importantly \u2013 they didn\u2019t have to worry about who to cut off their guest list based on restrictions or vaccinations,\u201d said Ricci.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Although the pandemic has put a damper on wedding days, planning a successful wedding during COVID-19 can and has been done.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][evc_counter digit_font_weight=”500″ title_tag=”h1″ title=”Number of married people that live in Canada in 2019.” text=”In 2020, 210,000 people got married got married in Canada for a total of 14,360,000 married people. The number of guests per event has decreased by 40% overall since re-opening.” digit=”14150000″ digit_font_size=”80″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

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