C8 The BulleTin • Sunday, april 18, 2021
Weddings
Continued from C1
A couple could send out
wedding invitations during
moderate risk, only to have the
permitted numbers reduced
if the county backtracks to a
higher risk.
“It can really mess with
somebody’s stuff,” said
Latham. “If last week you can
have a wedding with 150 peo-
ple and now this week you can
only have a wedding with 50
people, what do you do?”
The result, said Latham, is
having to tell some friends and
relatives to cancel their travel
plans and stay home. That type
of uncertainty has forced cou-
ples to reschedule for the sec-
ond half of 2021 or even 2022.
When dates get pushed back it
represents lost revenue for the
wedding industry.
“There are only so many
Saturdays and I only have
so many DJs available,” said
Latham, who has taken out
loans and sold equipment to
get by. “It’s definitely a revenue
decrease based on the way the
industry works.”
Garrett Jaenicke, director of
marketing for the Bend Cham-
ber of Commerce, said he has
heard anecdotally from cham-
ber members that they have
had to close due to the down-
turn in business caused by the
restrictions.
“Some may come back as
vaccines get more widely dis-
tributed, but one of the chal-
lenges and frustrations for
those still in business has been
the yo-yo effect of the loosen-
ing and tightening of in-per-
son restrictions by the state as
cases fall and accelerate,” said
Jaenicke.
The downturn in weddings
has affected venues too. Bend
Park and Recreation District
averages 130 weddings per
year at Aspen Hall and Hol-
linshead Barn each year. In
2020 that number fell to just
30.
This year the district expects
that number to climb up to
around 100, said Julie Brown, a
spokesperson for the District.
Damon Runberg, Oregon
Employment Department Re-
gional Economist, said the
local event business has been
cut in half due to COVID-19.
His data does not break down
weddings specifically but does
include many who are em-
ployed in the live events in-
dustry.
“There has been very little
discernible recovery through
Q4 2020,” said Runberg.
The Wedding Report, a
Tuscon-based market re-
search firm that compiles
wedding-related data, said the
number of weddings last year
nationwide dipped to 1.1 mil-
lion, down from 2.1 million in
2019, a drop of 48%. The firm
projects 2.8 million weddings
this year before falling back to
2.2 million weddings in 2022.
The report adds that 7% of
couples canceled their wed-
ding event in 2020, but were
still married. And 46% of cou-
ples were cutting back on their
wedding expenses by an aver-
age of 31%.
In Oregon, pre-pandemic,
the wedding industry gener-
ated around $720 million a
year, according to data col-
lected by the Live Events In-
dustry of Oregon, an advocacy
group.
There have been some
bright spots in the wedding
industry. Even when a couple
cancels their party plans due
to social distancing rules, the
bride still needs a dress.
“We had a lot of brides that
were planning on a 2020 wed-
ding, and they are reschedul-
ing for this year,” said Robin
Bernard, manager at Cordially
Invited Bridal in Bend. “With
everyone excited about things
opening up, 2021 is (looking
like) a huge wedding year”
Jennifer Nichols, owner of
Bespoke Bride in Bend, said
women are often opting to
scale down their dress choices,
choosing one appropriate for a
small wedding or elopement.
“It was kind of cool seeing
brides shift their focus and be
intentional about why they
were getting married and what
that would look like and still
moving forward,” said Nichols.
Even though sales of the
elaborate, pricier dresses
dropped in 2020, Nichols said
business picked up quickly af-
ter the initial lockdown last
year. Some brides even bought
two dresses — a low-key one
for a small ceremony and a
more traditional dress to use
later when the easing pan-
demic permits a party.
“Once July hit, we have been
pretty busy ever since,” she
said.
Nichols, who has owned her
business for three years, antic-
ipates business will be steady
this summer and believes the
demand for simple dresses and
simple weddings will continue
even after the pandemic sub-
sides.
A smaller wedding saves
money and allows couples to
concentrate on certain aspects
of the special day, said Nichols,
such as the cake or floral ar-
rangements.
“Not having 200 people
might allow them to get their
dream wedding bouquet in-
stead,” said Nichols. “Even
with the pandemic winding
down, I think the trend of a
smaller more intentional wed-
ding is probably going to stay
for a while.”
e e
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Brooks
Continued from C1
Some employers believe
that federal unemployment
checks are keeping a portion
of the labor force, particularly
in service industries home be-
cause they can survive off the
increased income. Although
this may be true for some, it
only brings full-time mini-
mum wage earners to about
$12 per hour, which is less than
what many are now earning
in entry-level, full-time posi-
tions. While these unemploy-
ment checks end on Sept. 1,
it remains unclear how many
people will wait until then to
reenter the workforce.
Lack of child care is another
significant factor limiting the
ability of many parents to get
back to work. It is impacting
everyone, but mostly women,
who lag behind returning to
the workplace by nearly 2 to
1 nationwide. The reopen-
ing of schools will help many
parents go back to work, but
after- school care will be harder
to come by. Even worse, the
infant to preschool child care
network in Central Oregon has
been devastated by COVID-19.
It will take a well-coordinated
and expedited effort between
incoming federal funding, the
Oregon Early Learning Divi-
sion and regional networks to
help child care providers open
and fill even a fraction of the
need.
The rising cost of living in
Bend is also impacting our la-
bor pool. Housing costs are
one of the biggest barriers to
attracting employees. Many
can’t find housing they can af-
ford and have had to move out
of town or have decided not to
come here at all. Businesses are
increasing wages but find the
cost of housing far outpaces
what they can afford to pay
their employees. We’ve seen
this problem coming for years
and the pandemic has made
the situation much worse.
The pandemic also made
what looks to be permanent
changes to how and where we
work. People have experienced
more flexibility than ever be-
fore and may not be interested
in returning to their pre-pan-
demic schedule. This may
force employers to think differ-
ently about how they schedule
and build in flexibility to at-
tract talent.
All these factors contribute
to the lack of labor in both the
short and long term and will
require new ways to attract,
train and accommodate em-
ployees — and most of what
needs fixing will not come easy.
e e
Katy Brooks is the Bend Chamber of
Commerce CEO. Her vision for the
chamber is to catalyze an environment
where businesses, their employees and
the community thrive.