'Challenging To Keep Up With All These Changes,' Wedding Planners Slammed By Demand After Pandemic
BOSTON (CBS) - June is the height of wedding season and with so many events canceled last year wedding planners are now slammed with events. Many couples are learning the importance of being flexible.
The backyard of her Nantasket home was not the wedding venue of her dreams, but Lorena Silva-Herman was thankful to get married during the pandemic surrounded by a small group of friends and family.
"It was special but it was stressful," she told WBZ-TV.
Silva-Herman originally planned a larger wedding in Boston, but when the hotel canceled just weeks before the wedding, she called Jodi Raphael Events to help her re-invent her day.
"Crazy is not the word. We are working morning till night to try to accommodate everyone as best we can," Raphael told WBZ.
And the chefs are slammed at East Meets West Catering. Michelle Stemp is the executive director and runs the Exchange Conference Center in the Seaport.
"It's challenging to keep up with all of these changes that are happening now and still be able to give our future clients the attention that they need," Stemp said.
And with so many events planned for this summer, there's a shortage of just about everything.
"There are only so many tents that exist, and only so many forks that exist and only so many chairs that exist. There's also a paper shortage, which is very bizarre," Stemp said.
Stemp and Raphael are thrilled to be busy again and they say as long as brides can be flexible, they can pull off a magical wedding. Just ask Lorena Silva-Herman.
"It was beautiful," Silva-Herman said. "It became something special in the midst of a lot of chaos."
And like many other employers, wedding planners are struggling to find enough workers to cover their events and some planners are holding off on booking some key dates because they want to make sure they are not short-handed.