Has the pandemic affected how couples get married?
Photography by Corinne Moffat
A question I get asked most often.
One of the (many) highlights of my job is talking to the wonderful people that come through our doors each week, along with most people it is the thing I missed most when we were in lockdown, human interaction with strangers. Don’t get me wrong there are challenges, especially when you add in summer heat and masks but having excited brides and their nearest and dearest makes my heart genuinely sing and I am ecstatic that we can accommodate groups again . Once me and the bride-to-be have gotten into the swing of dress trying and the initial excitement has settled from a boil to a simmer, it’s the perfect opportunity to have a chat, I get asked a plethora of questions with some recurring but one that is new to me in the past year is: Has the pandemic affected how couples get married?
Photography by Belle Art
Simply put, yes! If you are reading this it’s likely you or someone you know has had to re-arrange their wedding innumerable times, after having a carrot dangled last summer and stepping into the unknown that was 2021 a lot of our brides hung on in the hope we would be in a simpler and brighter place, in many ways we are but weddings without distancing, masks and guests in triple figures seem a long way away. So what happens now? I was asked by a publication the other week if the pandemic had affected bridal habits and I spoke to the amazing team that make up Rolling In Roses, and we surmised that although all of our brides have had to make some level of sacrifice most of the weddings that were planned for this year have gone ahead, with the standout reason being ‘we just wanted to be married’. The pandemic put a lot of things into perspective but one thing it slammed home is that the things that are really important are the people you love, and that most brides just want to marry the person they love, surrounded by people who love them. A union of two people, isn’t that what weddings should be? We have had back garden buffets, registry office runaways, highland elopements (including our amazing dressmaker and Co-ordinator Ellis who recently went over the border to marry her love Natalie) and intimate dinners with a group of just 10 people.
Photography by Corinne Moffat
Now this isn’t to say that getting your friends and family together in an amazing venue, sharing food and drinks and dancing the night away is a thing of the past, it most certainly isn’t and most of our brides have big parties planned for next summer, but having the opportunity to elope, or downscale a wedding is a blessing for so many brides, not to mention the financial saving. And on the flipside a number of our brides have decided to start a family or move house during the pandemic and get married when things have opened back up next year. It’s completely individual to each bride, just like their dress. But one thing is clear, love is most certainly not dead.
