Warmer weather and longer days can only mean one thing. Wedding season is upon us.
This spring and summer, for the first time in two years since COVID-19 restrictions are lifting, weddings can go ahead as planned and Cochrane RancheHouse Event Centre manager Kristie Bell said reservations are overflowing.
"2022 is just exploding," Bell said. "Because, obviously, we've got a lot of folks that were disappointed in the last two years that are trying to squeeze into a year that was already sold.
"We typically sell a year and a half in advance," she said.
But that hasn't stopped anyone from asking.
"What's happened now is we have this extraordinarily stretched out wedding season," Bell said. "We are booked pretty much for May through to the end of October."
Bell said a typical year will see weddings from June through to September long. This year, she noted, the RancheHouse has already had weddings in February and March.
"They're everywhere," she said. "And oddly, people are still shopping. A lot of the people who were planning to get married in 2019 or 2020, they postponed and now that the restrictions have lifted, they're like, 'Is there a chance we could get married this year.'
"Unfortunately, for a lot of those, we're having to say we're full."
Weekday weddings, Bell said, are one way couples are looking to squeeze into venues' gridlocked 2022 schedules.
After a long two years of COVID cancellations, Bell said she and her team are "happy to finally be able to help people celebrate again."
"The other side of this business, this is sort of the sadder part, is that a lot of people were lost in the past two years and they weren't able to have memorials," Bell said. "Now, there are a lot of celebrations of life being booked with us as well as people are finally trying to get together."
Bell said the RancheHouse had a better hand dealt to them amid the pandemic compared to other venues.
"We've been able to host different things," she said, noting that Alberta Health Service has been hosting vaccination clinics out of the space.
"They've been constant," she said. "I think, for a while there, there was 400 to 500 people coming through the door to get vaccinated. But that's a different kind of clientele...
"We've been grateful to have them as that's a super important part of supporting the community."
Adapting was a key takeaway from the COVID-19 pandemic, Bell said.
"I think there was a lot of things people didn't know we could do until you had to," she said. "And then you're like, 'Oh, that wasn't so bad after all.'
"For me, my philosophy is always working towards the yes," Bell said. "That makes a difference. IF you can have that sort of openness, you can get creative. It doesn't mean you'll get there. But if that's your intention, you can foster creativity."
