In 2019, the Church of Sweden in Jönköping had 72 weddings, the corona year 2020 the number was 46. But 2021 looks brighter if one is to believe the registrations that have been received so far.
61 couples have contacted the Church of Sweden in Jönköping to book a wedding.
- It looks promising.
It looks like there will be many weddings, says the priest Fredrik Hollertz.
A picture of how a wedding "should be"
He believes that the decline in the number of weddings last year may be due to many having a dream or a picture of what their wedding should look like, often with many guests gathered, which the pandemic's restrictions did not allow.
Although many who are thinking of getting married still ask a lot of questions to the church about and how it is possible to have a wedding given the corona situation, more people seem to be more optimistic now that the vaccinations are underway.
- If the restrictions are released, there will be quite a few more bookings.
I am convinced of that, says Fredrik Hollertz.
- There are many who have waited and longed, he says with a smile.
More have married civilly instead
At the same time as the number of weddings under the auspices of the church has decreased during the pandemic, there has been the exact opposite effect with the civil weddings at, for example, Rosenlund's manor in Jönköping.
Couples who had talked about a church wedding with many guests had to rethink instead chose a shorter civil wedding with fewer guests.
In the clip above, you hear Fredrik Hollertz talk about his hope that they might be a wedding summer.