Even if there is no shortage of customers, several consequences linked to the health crisis are now complicating the task of “wedding planners”.
Hit, but not sunk. They were among the professions most penalized by the health crisis and are now trying to make up for lost time. Wedding planners, more commonly referred to as “wedding planner“, are experiencing a lackluster 2022 season, marked certainly by a massive return of customers, but disrupted by the perverse effects of the health crisis. Reports that have been accumulating for more than two years, reduced budgets to provide an equivalent quality of service or even overwhelmed service providers… The consequences of the health crisis are giving a hard time to all these organizers who are entering the most important period. of their season.
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“Difficult is a nice term“, laments Élodie, manager of her own wedding planning agency. She evokes the two previous seasons ruined by the cessation of event activities. It sees the state of its cash flow taking the hit and undermining its current budget, despite the installments received before the crisis. “The sector has been so disrupted, I have to adapt to the price level because I operate with half the budget than before the crisis“, she explains. Stefania, also self-employed, has postponed more than 20 weddings between 2020 and 2022, and is thus faced with the concern of the traffic jam at the level of dates. Even if its workforce allows it to manage two weddings per weekend, this manager whose agency is based in Boulogne has had to give up many new clients and must still refuse dates for 2023.
“Many providers have gone out of business”
Not to mention the significant cost of these postponements, which many structures did not charge their customers during the crisis: “We accepted the postponements at no additional cost so as not to add additional distress to our customers, but it was necessary to ensure the supplements of the service providers, for those who had not canceled“Says another player in the sector, who has only been able to organize four events in two years. The “wedding planners” are also suffering from the cruel shortage of personnel in the logistics and catering sectors. “We didn’t see it coming but it’s one of our biggest problems. Many providers have gone out of business, those who survived are overwhelmed and refuse dates, come back to us after three weeks, compared to 48 hours before the crisis“Laments Élodie.
Same story for Leticia, manager of a company of “destination wedding», weddings organized in France, most of the time in the provinces, for foreign tourists. Due to a lack of availability at local caterers, it is obliged to bring in caterers with the largest staff from Paris., more expensive in terms of travel and accommodation, thus forcing it to boost its rates. For Stefania, because of staffing shortages, where she used to hire a server for 20 guests, she can only get one for 25 today. Finally, not to mention the increases in the price of paper, not insignificant when it comes to printing thousands of announcements per season, which cause ever longer lead times. “When you say that to the customer, it goes wrongmurmurs Élodie, referring to the printing of leaflets.
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Even if the last two years have been morally and financially complicated, and other consequences have been added to this mixture, the players in the sector still want to be reassuring about the sequence of events: “I turn down requests every week. I sense optimism in the newlyweds, people want to party and make up for lost time“says Leticia. The fear of a resurgence of the epidemic could frighten some, but it especially pushes the future bride and groom to get married as soon as possible to avoid new incessant and costly postponements. Enough to trust customers, even if they now keep a close eye on the various conditions included in the contract.