Under normal circumstances, it’s Lauren Maurer’s job to plan the happiest day of your life.
The director of weddings at Meadowood, a sprawling luxury resort tucked between vineyards on the outskirts of St. Helena, Maurer is a self-described problem solver – the kind of person her clients can “come to for answers,” she says. But as pandemic has kneecapped tourism, squeezing the whole of the hospitality sector in Napa, the county’s destination wedding industry and the ecosystem of vendors, venues and businesses it supports have been hit particularly hard.
Meadowood closed March 21, just as the high spring season for weddings in Napa usually begins. The last three months for Maurer have been “a jigsaw puzzle” of rescheduling nuptials and frantically coordinating with vendors, she said, sometimes for ceremonies now well over a year away.
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“As we get information from the county and the state government, we’re passing it on to our couples and allowing them to reflect on what it could mean for them,” Maurer said. “But honestly, it is still so (uncertain) that we don’t know what weddings will look like not only for this summer, but into next year.”
Disruptions are numerous, far more widespread than venue closures: sometimes out-of-state couples or their guests can’t travel to Napa Valley, according to Dona Kopol Bonick, whose business Elope In Wine Country had all of its planned ceremonies for May postponed.
Kopol Bonick began her elopement business in 2008 out of a desire to cater to couples hoping for smaller, potentially less expensive weddings. But even with its relative flexibility – some of Kopol Bonick’s ceremonies are so small they consist of just the couple themselves – the elopement arm of the wedding industry has not been shielded.
“We have no income at all for May, June or July,” Bonick said. She and her husband, John, run several other businesses – together they have a wine label, and Bonick also has a photography business – but rely mainly on wedding season to propel them through the summer months.
Adding to the complexity of the situation, Napa County ceased issuing marriage licenses following the county’s shelter in place order. Though couples do not need a Napa County-issued marriage license in order to get married in the county – couples can typically register with their own counties, according to County Assessor John Tuteur – the cessation was implemented to discourage non-local couples from attempting to hold even small, destination-based ceremonies.
“We tried to continue issuing normally, but we were suddenly becoming overwhelmed, because neighboring counties and counties through the state were shutting down their marriage licensing,” Tuteur said. “People were driving from all over the state, which is not what we want in a pandemic.”
The county opened back up for marriage licenses on May 4, Tuteur said. It’s since issued a slow, but steady, stream of them, including to Sonia Romo and Matteo Fecondo, who had become engaged amid the county’s shelter in place order. On a Thursday in late May, the two signed forms on the dashboard of their car and received their marriage license.
“It’s funny that this whole thing is from our car, but it’s still exciting, because it’s the first step in having it feel real,” Romo said. “We’ve gone back and forth a lot about (what our actual ceremony) will look like.”
The couple plans to have what they’ll consider their real wedding in Italy, where Fecondo is originally from, sometime in the next two years, Romo said. They hope to have a small ceremony in Napa County at the end of June; attendance will depend on the county’s restrictions on gatherings, she said.
“We’ve had to accept reality, so we’re kind of playing it by ear right now,” Romo added.
In early June, Napa County plans to begin drive-up ceremonies in which couples can receive their licenses and then be officially married on the spot. Neither state nor county stay at home orders explicitly ban weddings, Tuteur confirmed.
Some couples have attempted to salvage their original wedding dates, according to Bonick, who said she’d had interest from a Menlo Park-based couple whose 150-person wedding, set to be held in Yountville, had been postponed. They were looking to elope, Bonick said, intending to hold a larger celebration in 2021, and deciding between Napa Valley and Carmel.
Reed + James Events, which each year plans about 20 100-person weddings between Napa and Sonoma counties, has pushed to launch its elopement and “mini-wedding” arm, according to creative director and owner Brittany Westerman. A handful of clients have cancelled their ceremonies altogether, she said, but the majority have pushed back to the next year.
“That might lead to a bigger boom of weddings (in 2021),” she said. Reed + James previously dealt with postponements during wildfires in 2017 and 2019, according to Westerman, who noted that pandemic-prompted delays are a different beast: “how do you encourage your client to make the right decision when the government isn’t even (sure of the next steps)?”
Weddings and other group social events generated $267 million in direct spending in Napa Valley in 2018, according to data from Visit Napa Valley. More than 11% of the valley’s visitors come for a wedding or similar special event, according to Visit Napa Valley’s 2018 visitor profile study.
V. Sattui is one of just five wineries in Napa County able to host weddings (the rest are barred from doing so by the Winery Definition Ordinance). Its use permit allows for 80 weddings each year, according to Director of Weddings Alison Janigian Hartman, who said half of the winery’s scheduled weddings had already postponed until the next year and that a surprising number of new inquiries have slowly trickled in.
“People that had destination weddings planned in Italy or Hawaii are now looking at other (domestic) options,” Janigian Hartman said. “It’s going to be a challenge in the future as to how to restructure our contracts for virus-related postponements. These are things we’ve never had to consider before.”
Weddings are a significant source of income for V. Sattui, she added, noting this year’s postponements had already filled many of next year’s available slots. The winery “has not quite reached” its capacity yet, Hartman said, but would consider starting talking to the county if it finds itself inundated with requests beyond its 80-event limit.
The postponements are as challenging emotionally as they are logistically, according to Meadowood’s Maurer: many of her clients have undergone something like “the five stages of grief,” she said, calling the circumstances “heartbreaking” for both vendors and couples.
“Initially it was just craziness – we were moving dates as fast as possible – and then there was a lull of people trying to digest what was happening,” she said. “I think now we’re starting to move into a more positive direction where (couples) are more sure of what they want to do, but it has been an emotional roller coaster.”
The future of weddings could be shaped by local regulation around gatherings and travel, Maurer said. She expects Meadowood will lean heavier upon its outdoor spaces in coming months; a pseudo-network has formed among the county’s wedding venues, which are communicating with each other regarding availability to ensure couples can have their ceremonies on desired dates. Things might be different for the foreseeable future, Maurer said.
“But different doesn’t mean bad,” she continued. “I think we’re going to see couples getting back into smaller, intimate wedding, and maybe that’ll benefit us being able to truly hone in on what their day should be about.”
You can reach Sarah Klearman at (707) 256-2213 or sklearman@napanews.com.