- All I know is that,
for centuries,
cultures have celebrated the milestones of life.
A child being born,
coming of age,
a marriage,
a death,
and they've used way too many resources
to celebrate those things.
I don't see that ending.
I just think the conditions in which we do that
have changed.
I'm 40 years old.
It's taken me this long to figure out
what I'm good at in life.
I know I'm good at this.
So it's like,
okay, so what are my rules now?
And, I think I just keep
trying to be creative,
and innovate around the cards we're dealt.
My name is Kat Ferguson,
and I'm an event planner.
- My name is Valerie Chysostomo,
and I am an event planner and florist
in the Atlanta area.
- My name is Summer McClain I'm the owner
of "My Simply Perfect Events".
I've been an event planner for about fourteen years now.
My first clients just celebrated their
fourteen year anniversary.
- I was usually working on weddings for about a year.
I was apart of everything.
All touch points that go into planning a wedding,
I was apart of.
- [Summer] I really do love weddings.
I love first dance,
ooh I love a good first dance.
I love the entrance.
I love seeing a bride for the first time in her gown.
When a bride walks in and says
"this is better than I ever thought it could be".
Like that's my, ah I love it!
- [Kat] People put a lot into their wedding.
In life we only have so many grand milestones.
And that's one of the big ones.
- [Valerie] Right after Valentine's Day,
the events kinda start roll up and things started to happen.
So you have the March, April, May events
that are starting to unfold.
We're receiving RSVPs.
We're pretty much tying the loose ends,
for events that are a month out.
We didn't really understand the severity,
so we just went ahead and continued to plan.
Because we thought the last two weeks in March,
"oh its gonna blow over, its gonna be fine."
- [Summer] In March I remember my sister sent a text
message and she said "its happening."
You know everything was getting locked down.
And I just thought okay,
the weddings will just have to get pushed back,
to like July.
I'd called one of my brides, you know I said,
"Hey listen, I wanna put this in your ear,
I think its, you know, we probably need to
push this back a little bit."
She said, "We're gonna make a decision next week."
And I said "Make a decision by tomorrow."
She said "Okay."
- [Kat] I would say as soon as March happened,
I lost about 80% of the business.
When I say lost that means
canceled and or postponed to 2021.
And then about 20% of the business held back.
I actually took an April wedding,
and postponed it to October,
in which I just postponed again until next April.
- [Summer] As planners, we're always like,
"We can make anything happen, let's do it."
And so to come in and say,
"Hey listen, I think this is more serious."
It's hard, because not everybody wants to hear that.
- [Kat] Its one thing to deal with one wedding
in your year that's going to cancel, maybe two.
Its one thing to deal with a rain plan that
comes up at the last minute.
Even the Thomas Fires, and we're moving venues.
This was everything, everyone, all at once.
Just like .
A flat lay down of just,
all the work you had done.
And
Yeah, it was heavy, it was really heavy.
But you just, the same way you load in,
you load out.
You know, its like, "Who are my vendors?"
Call 'em up.
We either postpone or we're canceling.
If you're canceling, "Can I get some of my money back?"
"How much money can I get back?"
If you postponed your wedding,
it was no financial consequence.
If you canceled your wedding the financial consequence
was great.
Most vendors were unable to
give full refunds.
And so clients lost a lot of money, who canceled.
That's hard to watch.
You don't want anyone to put their money forward,
and then not get something in return.
Especially, as significant as their wedding day.
- [Valerie] That's half of the battle,
with the virus.
We may not have it or we may not be sick or anything,
but the level of disappointment that we're feeling
is something that's very traumatic.
And a lot of people will look back
two or three years and they'll come out of it,
and they'll be like "Whoa, I was really, really down,
but I didn't realize that I was working
through all these feelings and emotions."
- I get emotional even thinking about it,
because I've listened, and heard,
and tried to hold hands through a lot
of kind of just sadness in letting their weddings go.
So there's a lot of sadness from the couples
and there families.
And that's been hard.
But most of my couples are strong,
some of them have shocked me on how
much they've been able to let go of their wedding day.
Nobody wants to let go of something they've worked
that long and that hard at planning.
But, what could they do?
I mean, it was their hands were tied.
Not only are people counting on the wedding,
but they're counting on the what after the wedding.
Some of them are waiting to have children
until after they get married.
There's a lot wrapped up in a wedding,
other than just a big party.
And so it was like, a domino financially,
and a domino emotionally,
that came up for everyone involved.
- A lot of contracts and agreements have been tested.
Everyone is having unique opportunity,
to see and take a look at their systems.
To see if this really works or if this really does not work.
- [Summer] The conversations are incredibly awkward.
This is my job, this is how I eat,
this is how I put food on the table.
So,
if you booked me a year ago,
of course none of us knew this was going to happen.
But that's why I have a clause in my contract.
I can't be held responsible
because I can't do your wedding,
because there's no venue.
But also, I can not be held responsible,
because I'm not gonna put my life in danger.
If you are unwilling to change your date
to a time that is not in the middle of a pandemic,
and I am unwilling to risk my life,
we're at an impasse.
- Everyone is
staying afloat,
or pivoting,
or just failing, but coming up new.
- So you guys are always talking
about "Planners don't share information."
And you know "You don't have the confidence."
And "How is this gonna, how is being a planner,
going to change my life?" or
"How is learning from you, going to change my business?"
Rather than me telling you,
why don't I have some of my students tell you?
I did a little bit of a pivot,
I started teaching a lot of classes online.
I teach people the ins and outs
of planning weddings.
About contracts, how to build a wedding.
You know, where to start.
And how to find vendors,
advertising, all that stuff.
- It felt like minimum,
no one was doing a wedding with less than 75 people.
And they're spending on average
$30-60,000.
Just kind of
an average family.
You know, that's a lot of money.
It's a huge investment.
If anything, I think that these times have
asked people to slow down,
focus their dollars, and think about their guest lists
And most planners would kill me for saying this but,
I think that's a good thing.
Get clear with what's really, really important.
Having some huge fancy
night,
maybe that's not the priority anymore.
- [Valerie] In the '60s, '70s, '80s,
the reason why those weddings were larger was,
A. Because the families were paying for them, right?
They were throwing their wedding on behalf
of their daughter.
And now you know you have a shift thirty years later,
where the parents just show up.
And you honor them because you love them,
but guess who's paying for it?
And guess who's paying for student loans?
And guess who wants a really nice house?
And guess who's focused on their kids?
Like, there's so much more in a millennials mind,
because those responsibilities,
of even a home, is often times not even inherited.
- [Kat] In March I closed up shop,
and really took the time to,
take care of my clients,
who were unwrapping from their wedding day.
Figuring out how we were gonna move them.
And then sort of addressing those that were
truly just canceling, all, just outright.
As those months kinda went by,
I saw many of my couples
choosing to get married anyways.
And that meant going to the courthouse.
I've had couples get married at the Honda Center.
And so that started like,
Hey, my people are out there,
they still wanna get married.
They're willing to play by the rules,
which is , we gotta do ceremony only right now,
we can't do reception,
and it has to be outside.
Well,
that's what I can do.
I can put together this beautiful venue.
I can have all the flowers there,
that could, you know,
that they could need, or want.
I can have an officiant there just like
a clerk recorder.
You know I can provide a killer photographer,
videographer, and its just a turn key approach.
Its basically like if you're considering going
to a courthouse,
consider this instead.
- We're literally seeing, the events industry deteriorate,
and transform right before our eyes.
Its a beautiful opportunity to for us
to press into something new.
I think that there's a lot shifting going on,
a lot of sifting going on at the same time.
And we're getting down to the bare minimum,
of what is truly important.
- [Kat] I'm gonna keep spinning ideas out,
and seeing how they work.
And throwing them out into the universe,
and seeing if that's what other people need,
or want to do.
But I'm gonna stay open and hopeful,
and I do believe this will pass,
but I'm not so certain
that the dynamics,
and how we view weddings,
and wedding planning going forward
haven't forever been altered.
- [Valerie] People should press into what's happening,
press into the change,
and lean into it as best you can.
Its not an ideal situation,
and a lot of visions and dreams have
been crushed and broken.
But I think its a beautiful unique opportunity
to make new ones.