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Wedding Venues Are Ready to Resume ‘I Do’ in CNY Wedding Venues Are Ready to Open in CNY

Larger Gatherings are Expected to be Allowed to Restart in Phase Four.

By Gabrielle Riles

GABRIELLE RILES: LARGE GATHERINGS SUCH AS WEDDINGS HAS BEEN PROHIBITED FOR THE PAST THREE MONTHS DUE TO COVID-19. ONE VENUE OWNER SAYS ALTHOUGH RESCHEDULING WEDDINGS CAN BE DONE, IT IS STILL A LOSS FOR HIS BUSINESS.

KEVIN SOMALIS: “If you had an event in April and you postpone it to April 2021, you’re really canceling the event and booking a new event. So that’s loss business, cause I can’t do a second event next April. It’s only so many dates in the year”

RILES: THE OWNER OF SKY ARMORY SAYS HE HAS HAD A TOTAL OF FOUR WEDDINGS CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19. THE REST WERE PUSHED BACK TO THE FALL AND NEXT YEAR.

SOMALIS: “We lost about four hundred thousand in sales/revenue.”

RILES: SOMALIS SAYS THAT HE WAS ABLE TO RECEIVE FUNDING FROM BOTH THE PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM AND IDLE DISASTER RELIEF FUND IN ORDER FOR HIS BUSINESS TO STAY AFLOAT.

SOMALIS: “We don’t know why but 2020 was a nice number to put on your invitations or something. We were looking at a 40 percent growth from 19 through 20.”

RILES: SOMALIS SAYS HE IS HOPING THAT PHASE FOUR IS INDEED HAPPENING SOONER THAN LATER BECAUSE HE IS PREPARING FOR HIS FIRST COVID FRIENDLY WEDDING TO HAPPEN ON JULY 19.

SOMALIS: “We space tables nicely so we fit meet the six-foot guidelines anyway for a normal wedding unless it’s very large… our staff are going to wear masks … we have a lot of health code that we are going to put in place.”

RILES: PHASE 4 IS THE LAST STAGE OF REOPENING FOR CENTRAL NEW YORK. ACCORDING TO THE FORWARD NEW YORK WEBSITE, BUSINESSES THAT FALL IN THE CATEGORIES OF ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND EDUCATION WILL BE ALLOW TO REOPEN. GOVERNOR CUOMO HAS NOT CONFIRMED WHAT GUIDELINES THESE BUSINESSES WILL HAVE TO FOLLOW. IN SYRACUSE, FOR N-C-C NEWS I’M GABRIELLE RILES.

SYRACUSE N.Y. (NCC News) —  Phase Four is expected to begin tomorrow in Central New York.  It is the final stage of reopening and it includes businesses that fall under the arts, entertainment and education category.

It’s unclear whether wedding venues fall under the entertainment category, but they will be subject to the increased limit on public gatherings of 50 people.

Kevin Somalis, the owner of Sky Armory in Downtown Syracuse is eager for the clearance to reopen because his clients have to plan in advance.

“When you’re planning your wedding you need about a 60-90 day window between when you have the assurance that you can have it because you gotta think about invitations, your relatives are flying in, you’re booking hotel rooms, so you need a big chunk of time,” Somalis said.

Somalis have had a total of four weddings canceled and the others pushed back to the fall and next year. He said although he is lucky that he had a few cancellations, he can never get those booked wedding dates back.

“If you had an event in April and you postpone it to April 2021, you’re really canceling the event and booking a new event. So that’s loss business, cause I can’t do a second event next April. It’s only so many dates in the year,” Somalis said. 

Somalis said that he was expecting a 40 percent growth in the bookings of weddings since last year. Now, due to the pandemic, he says that it is no longer the case.

“This year is probably going end with the rebooking about the same as last year,” Somalis said.

Sky Armory has lost a total of $400,000 in sales and revenue due to the coronavirus. Somalis said the only way the business was able to survive was due to funding from the Payment Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL).

 

 

 

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