China News Service, April 26. According to the US "World Daily" report, as the new crown pneumonia epidemic eases the economic restart, Southern California also seems to stage the expected "retaliatory marriage wave", and many press the pause button during the epidemic. weddings have resumed.
Since the second half of last year, wedding consultants have "received soft calls and schedules until next year".
The budget for the wedding banquet, also affected by rising inflation, has risen with the tide.
"The number of new people who come to consult can be said to have exploded." Ms. Wang, the person in charge of a wedding company, said that from May 2020 to April 2021, when the epidemic began, the company only received 24 wedding consultations, and about 5 wedding banquets were sold. , from May last year to April this year, "has received 104 wedding consultations".
From January to April 2021, only 6 inquiries were received, but in the first 4 months of this year, "49 wedding inquiries have come to us".
Ms. Wang, who is also a marriage care and pastor, said that her schedule is full by the end of this year, and now she is asking about next year's wedding banquet, and next year's wedding schedule has also been scheduled to June.
Ms. Shui, the person in charge of the Wedding Academy, said that since September and October last year, she has received a lot of news about her wedding consultation. "So far this year, I have received more than 30 letters or phone calls for wedding consultations."
Mr. Hou, the head of a company engaged in wedding lighting, arrangement, music, and DJ, also said that in 2019, they hosted a total of 340 wedding banquets, and in 2020, "less than 75".
In the second half of last year, it suddenly increased to 240 wedding banquets, and 270 weddings were completed throughout the year.
This year is even more exaggerated. As of April, the schedule has more than 200 weddings waiting for them.
Ms. Wang said that the main reason for this wave of weddings is that many newlyweds who were originally scheduled to get married in 2020 were postponed due to the outbreak of the epidemic, and some relatives and friends of the newlyweds from many places were unable to attend, and the wedding was postponed again and again.
Mr. Hou also said that many customers who signed contracts in 2020 have delayed their weddings until now, especially the Chinese, who have only caught up with the wedding trend this year.
He said that of the 75 wedding banquets in 2020, most of them were non-Chinese customers, such as Middle Easterners, "they don't care much about the epidemic."
In the more than 200 wedding banquets last year, less than 15% were Chinese, and this year, the number of Chinese weddings has gradually reached 50%.
Wedding parties also present a "polarized" difference.
Mr. Hou pointed out that some Chinese couples have postponed their wedding in 2020. They are looking forward to the end of the year or last year when their relatives and friends can go to the United States to attend the wedding banquet from overseas. However, this year, they found that it was still difficult for relatives and friends to go to the United States, so they had to give up and the scale of the wedding was also reduced. .
He gave an example of an entrepreneur's daughter who originally planned to hold a wedding banquet for 450 people in 2020. After the outbreak, the wedding was postponed to the end of the year. However, the epidemic was still raging, so it had to be postponed to the beginning of last year, but it still failed.
It was finally decided to hold in September last year, and the number of people was also reduced from the original 450 people to 130 people.
"Even this year, I still hear about relatives and friends who couldn't attend at the last minute." Ms. Wang said that she heard about a wedding banquet with more than 100 people booked a few months ago. In the last week, she found that nearly 40 relatives and friends could not fly to South Korea from overseas. add.
In addition, for a wedding banquet held in 2020, the original ceremony was to be held together with a banquet of 100 people, but due to the epidemic, the venue was required to be reduced in size, and in the end only a dozen people "wearing masks" attended the ceremony.
Ms. Shui also pointed out that in the past two years, "Chinese weddings are generally not very large in scale", but it is common for non-Chinese wedding parties to have hundreds of people.
"Epidemic prevention" is also included in the preparation of the wedding process after the epidemic.
Ms. Wang said that in addition to alcohol and disinfectants, the most common question they ask is "whether guests are vaccinated, and if they are not vaccinated, should they submit a 48-hour negative report?" For a few weddings, couples will require both. to participate.
In addition, a few months ago, some venues will require masks, and some Chinese wedding occasions, masks will be more stringent.
She said that she will also be very careful, and try to wear a mask throughout the wedding banquet.