Path to recovery has road blocks for wedding venues

Weddings at Tiffany’s Director Kelly Tilse ... “There are thousands upon thousands of people in Queensland who rely solely on the wedding industry for their income. That’s a lot of people who are going to end up at Centrelink and that’s not what we want.”

Weddings at Tiffany’s Director Kelly Tilse thought she might finally be able to deliver some good news to desperate couples waiting to hear when they could be married. 

However we are still not quite there yet, with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Roadmap to Recovery. 

Stage 3 of the COVID-19 restrictions lift allows weddings of up to 100 people from July 10.  But the sting comes in a practically unworkable requirement to maintain an “average density of 4m2 per person”. 

Ms Tilse says this makes hosting regular-sized weddings at venues impractical. 

“We were all excited and cheering and happy,” said Ms Tilse. “But that elation was quickly deflated when we found out the 4m2 rule was still going to apply. This makes it incredibly difficult for venues to operate.”

Ms Tilse said Tiffany’s Chapel normally seated up to 120 people. “But with the 4m2 density rule we can only have 25 people maximum in the Chapel at one time.” 

All wedding venues will be governed by the 4square meter rule ,even if you are hosting an outdoor wedding the moment you put up a marque for wet weather or shade this is then deemed an indoor space & the 4 square meter rule then applies.

Ms Tilse said that was devastating for couples who would normally have 50 to 100 guests, how can they be expected to choose who they don’t invite, so many of us have close family & friends who we have always dreamed would be there to witness our special day & celebrate our marriage ,this is one of the most exciting days of their lives & asking them to choose who to cut from their guest list is extremely stressful.  

“As an example are we going to have 25 people in the Chapel and then 75 people outside standing in the car park watching? Then if it rains we have to give them all umbrellas.”

Ms Tilse said smaller guest weddings were financially unviable for the long term. 

“With the infrastructure, the costs, the overheads that we have ...  this is devastating for an industry that is already on its knees because of the restrictions. It will collapse if we are not able to have the 4m2 rule relaxed.”

Six Point Plan to get weddings going 

“Ms Tilse reached out to Mrs Kerry Brown the president of Sunshine Coast Hinterland Tourism & asked her for help, Kerry understands how important the wedding industry is to our region , with weddings responsible for injecting $55million into the local Sunshine Coast Hinterland community this is too important to just sit back & hope the Government understands what our industry needs to get back up & running again.  We have spent days calling & speaking to hundreds of wedding venue owners in QLD  & everyone we have spoken to is saying the same thing, opening our venues with such small numbers just won’t work for any of us, so a group of us  are now assisting the , Queensland wedding industry which together is worth $700million to the states economy by coming up with a really concise six-point plan.

“Under the plan each venue will track and trace every single person who arrives at our venue so that we can host those numbers of 100. 

“We’re hoping that the 4m2 rule can be relaxed for us. Because we are able to then trace, exactly, every single person who has attended the venue on that day. They will be providing us with their names and details. Everyone will be accounted for.”

“There will be no public interaction. No people coming and going like you have at supermarkets, shopping centres and major hardware stores. Where you've got hundreds of people coming in and out and nobody knows who they are or where they came from.  

“We will implement hand-washing requirements and ask people if they have the COVIDSafe app to let us know.  If they don't have it then we'll have their names and details anyway, temperatures will be taken , we will be tracking & tracing everyone who comes onto the property, all guests at weddings are either family or close friends from the same networking circle.

“If something does occur they're going to be able to jump on it really quickly and contain it. Everyone will be traceable. 

“There are thousands upon thousands of people in Queensland who rely heavily on the wedding industry for their income, from the staff within the venues to accommodation houses, local restaurants , retail, celebrants, photographers & cake makers, musicians to name just a few That's a lot of people who are going to potentiallyend up unemployed and that's the last thing any of us would want.”

Roller Coaster ride for venues and brides

“For some brides it's been a 12 to 18 months journey together with them putting together the details of their big day, for them to find out ‘oh my gosh I can't get married’, and ‘when can I get married?’ 

“It's really heartbreaking. Many of us have been in tears all through this. It's been very emotional for all of us.  

“All we can do is support our couples, stay in constant contact with them. We are all longing to hear the sound of champagne corks popping , laughter & music at our venues again,  We just can't wait to be able to make those phone calls and let them know "guess what guys, we're good to go. Let's do this."