Crow’s Hall, COVID-19 & the Weddings & Events Industry

Postpone your 2020 Suffolk wedding now – or later? What’s wise in these uncertain COVID-19 times? It’s a difficult one when weddings mean so much to so many. Crow’s Hall owner, Caroline Spurrier, shares thoughts on the bigger picture.

It is much easier to postpone a wedding sooner rather than later. At Crow’s Hall, in these very unpredictable COVID-19 times, our feeling is to reassess twelve weeks before your wedding date, if not before.

I believe that wedding couples would rarely wish to risk potential, constant worry for what at this stage could be several months yet. On the run up to your wedding, you should be especially having fun with creating the guest list, dress fittings, planning table settings, menus, music and so on.

If guests may need to travel from abroad, it could be a long time before it is clear how they are going to manage – it’s worth noting that the Tokyo Olympics have now been postponed until next year.

Couples putting venues under pressure to stage their wedding over the next few months of COVID-19 induced uncertainly should bear in mind the stress the venues are under.

There’s the insurance; the clean-up and sterilisation after each wedding; the risk to their staff and any residents; difficulties in getting supplies of food, loo rolls(!!), cleaning products and being able to have enough healthy staff on site to serve.  Some venues with big mortgages and high running costs will be extremely vulnerable at this time.

Crow’s Hall is blessed with a position of some flexibility. Our business is mainly agriculture – if you came to our recent open day, you will have seen the enormous grain sacks overwintering in our great barn – so while food is required, we will still be in business!

For couples booked for their Suffolk barn wedding at Crow’s Hall Debenham this year, we are carrying the booking forward to 2021 at the same fee or, for those who wish to have a complete rethink, we are returning their deposit in full.

Couples sharing wedding celebrations at Crow’s Hall hold their wedding ceremony in another venue of their choice. We are recommending that they rebook their church or legal ceremonies sooner rather than later too.

It is a desperately unfortunate reality that some ceremony venues may struggle to survive this unpredictable period of the COVID-19 pandemic; those that do will be in high demand in 2021, with the fallout from this year and scheduled 2021 bookings.

At Crow’s Hall we will be looking to support our future wedding couples with as many ideas as possible for their ceremonies in and around Suffolk – in such times, our local support network and first class business partnerships can only get even stronger.