Wedding Covid restrictions: Call to open up venues once vax rate hit

Key wedding industry figures are calling on NSW Health to show a little love, claiming planned restrictions are more akin to punishment than being based on science.

The wedding industry is calling on the government to remove the 50-guest cap once NSW reopens.

Industry leaders have said the restrictions feel like “punishment, not science”, with some brides and grooms postponing their dream weddings for the third and fourth time.

Weddings have been halted since stay-at-home orders were announced at the end of June but after months of couples calling off their big day, the government allowed “micro weddings” to continue again with five guests earlier this month.

Once 70 per cent of the state is fully vaccinated a one person per four square metres rule comes into play for hospitality venues, retail stores, personal services like hairdressers, gyms, and major recreation outdoor venues.

It will result in stadium events capped at 5000 and outdoor gigs at 500.

Weddings, however, will remain at just 50 guests, as the industry moves into its busiest period.

Sal Navarra at Le Montage in Lilyfield. Picture: Christian Gilles

Sal Navarra, who owns the Le Montage venue in Leichhardt, called on the State Government to provide more freedom for the industry that has been torpedoed by the three-month Greater Sydney lockdown.

“As we emerge from lockdown in 2021, wedding operators and our customers are facing the same type of discrimination as we did last year, nothing’s changed, it’s like Groundhog Day for us,” Mr Navarra said.

“Our customers, staff, suppliers and all of our associated businesses want to know why a restaurant or bar will be able to have so many patrons eating and drinking inside, but a formal wedding reception in a room that holds up to 1650 people, can have only 50 guests.

“If we’re all double-vaccinated and operating under Covid-safe plans at our Navarra venues, what’s the difference between 50 and 500 guests? We can’t have one rule for one side of the hospitality industry and another rule for weddings.

“This ongoing inconsistency makes no sense at all.”

Wendy El-Khoury, who is the CEO and founder of online wedding marketplace Wedded Wonderland, has launched an online petition calling for weddings to be brought in line with the rest of the hospitality industry once the state hits its 70 per cent double vaccination in October.

CEO and founder of online wedding marketplace Wedded Wonderland Wendy El-Khoury

She said the decision by the NSW Government “makes no sense” and wants to see the 50-person cap on weddings removed, saying it won’t relieve the industry.

“We just want to be in line with the hospitality industry. We’re not asking for more, we’re just asking for fairness and equality,” she said.

“Couples are really going to struggle to see outdoor events take place, large-scale concerts, seated indoor events, events with 500 or 5000 people, restaurants packed with private events and yet weddings, a milestone moment and one of the most expensive investments from a couple’s perspective, can’t proceed.”

She also said without a road map beyond the 70 per cent vaccination rate, the industry could not build confidence in the market for future wedding plans.

“Lots of couples are holding on tight and holding on to hope … We need to build confidence in our market, that you can get married in January with 200 people.

“Give us the opportunity to open up properly. Give us an understanding of what the 80 per cent road map looks like.

“It works across all industries, but with gym memberships, hospitality venues, retail, as soon as things open up people can go shopping, eating or dining. With the wedding industry, it takes four to six weeks just to be able to get the ball rolling, to manage the backlog of past weddings and future weddings, we don’t open on day one.”

Engaged couple Cemre Aydemir and Alexander Scaron. Picture: Supplied

Bride-to-be Cemre Aydemir, of Greystanes, and her future husband Alexander Scaron, have postponed their wedding three times this year due to Covid.

They are hoping they won’t have to make it a fourth when their 250-guest wedding comes around in December.

The couple is from a big Italian/Uruguayan and Turkish families, and would find it hard to make it work with 50 guests.

Last year, Ms Aydemir was walking brides through cancellations as a sales manager at Navarra Venues, and this year she was doing the “extremely stressful” job of moving her own wedding.

“It’s the emotional stress, financial stress, it’s confusing, it causes a lot of stress in the relationship, one might not want what the other person wants … a lot of people have to uninvite their friends and family,” she said.

Alexander Scaron and Cemre Aydemir have been together for ten years and hope to get married in December.

“I had to cancel my wedding three weeks out from wedding date … It’s very emotional. When you restart and replan, it loses the excitement of the wedding. It’s not the same feeling anymore.

“We want a road map, we want answers, we want numbers increased, we want to enjoy the wedding the way a wedding should be enjoyed. We want to relax and get married, and get married the way we want to with friends and family watching on. Not have to worry about restrictions or Covid ruining the day.”

Ms Aydemir, 26, and Mr Scaron, 27, have been together for ten years and engaged for two-and-a-half years.

They said they decided to start a family because they didn’t want to have to put their life on hold.

“We had a daughter in-between now … We just wanted to get on with life. Lots of people are not waiting for their wedding to get on with things.”

Wes Lambert, CEO of Restaurant and Catering Australia, said the event and catering industry in NSW was “devastated and confused at this number” and said it “feels like a punishment, not science”.

“We are confused why you can have a 300 person sit down dinner of friends but not a 300 person sit down wedding reception,” he said.

“The only fair thing to do is to align weddings with the hospitality industry or provide the model based upon real health advice that explains to the industry why 50 is different to any other number.

“There is wide anger among the event caterers that we represent and they are telling us of the despair of customers who may now be delayed into 2022 as many dates are already taken.”

He said there were 1500 event caterers who formed part of the $1bn NSW industry who would be negatively impacted by the restrictions.

Wes Lambert, CEO, R & CA (Restaurant and Catering Australia). Picture: Supplied

“It means that the majority of weddings happen in spring and summer and on the weekends losing two to four weekends with such restrictive caps will mean tens of to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.

“The lost wedding revenue in 2020-2021 is lost forever, you can’t make it up. No one has the same wedding twice.”

A spokesman for NSW Health said decisions were still being made.

“The finer details of the road map are currently being worked through by the NSW Government, but there will be requirements in place to ensure only those who have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine can take advantage of the freedoms.

“Further information will be provided as we get closer to 70 per cent of our population being double vaccinated.”