The upcoming restrictions being lifted across the commonwealth is a sigh of relief for those in the wedding and event planning industry.
Over the past 14 months, couples have had to delay saying "I do" or forced to tie the knot under heavy COVID-19 restrictions.
“Growing up I always had dreams of what my wedding would be like and I can’t imagine having to do it any differently than what I pictured as a kid,” Brittany Pituch, the General Manager at The Concourse of Union Station said.
But brides and grooms have been doing it differently the past 14 months, being forced to cut back their wedding parties and have restrictions on their happily ever after.
“In March of last year, everything came to a screeching halt,” John Gallagher, the owner of John Gallagher Wedding and Special Event Entertainment said.
He has his own wedding and event planning business and said this past year has been tough but the announcement from the governor of restrictions being lifted came as the best news to him.
“I was kind of scratching my head going ‘did I just hear what I heard,” he said.
He has 30-40 weddings booked for this summer.
At the Concourse of Union Station venue, owner Marty Pituch and his daughter Brittany are thrilled because of the recent announcement.
“I actually called the governor’s office as soon as I heard the news just to confirm and make sure it really was happening,” Brittany said.
It will help their business. They can now have 325 people inside their venue at the full 100% capacity, which is a relief for brides who had to cut back their wedding guest list.
“As soon as that story broke, my phone started going nuts with brides all exciting,” Brittany said.
She said brides are excited they can get married, have all the people they want without having to cut down their list.
Soon their dance floor will be full of happy guests every weekend through Halloween. They have weddings scheduled for Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and even a Wednesday. These are weddings scheduled for this year and weddings postpones from last year to this year. They will still require masks when people arrive and when they aren’t seated at their table.
“We’re just happy that things are slowly getting back into the way they used to be,” Marty Pituch said.
The news is just as exciting for these weddings planners and venues as it is for the brides and grooms.
“It’ll be nice to see people smiling again, having a good time, family members hugging at weddings and dancing together,” Gallagher said. “They haven’t been able to do that for such a long time.”