We are all struggling and our lives have all been turned upside down but I just wanted to pop on here and share with you how COVID has affected my business while trying to do what I can to help my clients.
It has been a really tough time for everyone and my heart really goes out to all those couples left dangling not knowing when their wedding can happen. They have been under huge amounts of emotional and financial stress because of something out of their control with restrictions changing at a moments notice but please don't forget, that suppliers and freelancers have also been left in the same boat.
I have done as much as I possibly can to accommodate my couples. I've held prices, worked with dates and honoured discounts on postponements leaving myself to cover the extra costs that come from this.
My suppliers aren't holding their prices from 2019 to 2022, the government isn't freezing inflation, my landlord hasn't waived my rent, my insurance providers haven't maintained their 2019 prices and our holiday provider didn't honour the original booking price (and charged us a fee to change the date) because they all need to cover their costs going forwards.
I have been doing what I can to make sure that my clients haven't been hit with the hard end of the hammer from my end where I can and while absorbing the financial implications myself.
I honoured every price and discount offered for bookings that were postponed in 2020 and I didn't charge a single client an admin fee or any extra cost but I cannot do this indefinitely.
With restrictions on and off, I made myself available for my clients at a moments notice. For those who couldn't have the weddings they had planned but went ahead regardless because they just wanted to be married, I worked with and didn't even feel it right to charge them the normal full price for their bookings, reducing my income further still to help relieve the financial strain on them.
Many of us (myself included) have not been eligible for ANY financial support from the UK Government. We are the excluded community and there are around 3 million of us. We're now in month 10 of having very little or no income and living off our savings. Our clients have been taken away from us and we have no idea when we will be allowed to carry out another job so our diaries are empty for months to come.
Over 95% of my income from 2020 was taken away, yet the regular business running costs remain and continue to rise.
Every postponement means that my salary is withheld for months to come
Every cancellation is a withdrawal of my salary
When you make a booking with me, I commit to your booking by turning away any other work for the date you book. Postponing or cancelling your booking may mean that I have not only lost the income from your booking, I may have lost any chance of filling that date with another booking. This is why we charge a booking fee which also helps to cover some of those business running costs I mentioned earlier.
My business will not survive 2021 if this situation continues and I have been left with no choice but to increase prices for 2022. So please, if your booking can't go ahead, postpone do not cancel. Work with me, talk to me, check availability, be reasonable and I will do what I can to help for as long as I am able.