Perhaps Wyoming brides aren’t so easily deterred. While the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the wedding industry across this country, area businesses that cater to weddings say they didn’t see large drops in business in 2020 or significant increases last year. 

When the 2020 Brides American Wedding Study surveyed 4,000 followers of Brides on Instagram, 55% reported that the pandemic altered their expectations — in a good way. Having weathered turbulent 2020, 82% of the respondents said the pandemic increased their desire to get married. However, two-thirds said they postponed their wedding, with 36% ultimately getting married in 2020. 

Lynn Lampe, who owns the Cody venue Geysers on the Terrace, saw some disruptions in the early part of 2020. She hosts an annual My Wyoming Wedding Expo at the Terrace — which features a variety of Big Horn Basin businesses that cater to weddings — but had to cancel the event last year due to a lack of vendors signing up. 

This year, the event will be full steam ahead on Jan. 15, and Lampe said that she’s even getting interest from vendors in Billings. 

While there was some slowdown at the beginning of 2020, mostly from canceled corporate events, by summer the lull was gone, Lampe said. 

“Everybody got married this summer. Those brides said, ‘Bring it,’” she said. 

Lampe even had three weddings between Christmas and New Year’s Day last year. 

“I never had that before,” she said. 

While this winter has been a bit slower, Lampe has events booked up this summer and into 2023. She also expects the bridal show to spark even more brides-to-be to begin their wedding plans. 

This year, though, Lampe is retiring. She has sold the business, and she said the new owners are going to charge ahead with the bookings. 

“They’re going to be rocking and rolling,” Lampe said. 

Meanwhile, The Commons in Powell, a publicly owned venue that takes in some wedding business, saw a considerable difference in 2021 from 2020. 

Powell City Clerk Tiffany Brando said the venue had 17 reservations, with five canceled events in 2020. There were no events in March and April of 2020. 

In 2021, they had 31 reservations, with three canceled events. 

The city doesn’t keep track of the type of event, so it’s not known how many of those reservations were for weddings. 

Catering with Joy, however, didn’t see a lot of difference between 2020 and 2021. Both were quite busy for the business.

“It’s been about the same, steady,” said owner Joy Bessler. 

In 2020, Bessler said her business had to make some adjustments for safety, but “that’s about it.”  She didn’t have a lot of cancellations, and the number of weddings has been about the same. 

Marla Fertig, owner of McGlathery’s Back Porch Design, which includes a floral service, said she hadn’t noticed any significant differences between the volume of business last year compared to 2020. 

“We’re just pretty steady busy, which is good,” Fertig said. 

Fertig added that the pandemic, to some extent, increased business, because “if you can’t go see someone you can send them flowers.”

McGlathery’s sources from a wholesaler in Denver, which gets flowers from all over the world. She said there are still supply chain issues when it comes to certain types of flowers. 

Fertig said more people are planning their own weddings rather than paying for the service, so there’s been some reduction in the number of weddings compared to the past. But she didn’t see the pandemic have a huge impact on her wedding business.

While Fertig has been at her current location in downtown Powell for 20 years, Shelley Hill, owner of Hillside Floral, just took over her business in 2021. 

She doesn’t have much to compare it to, but Hill said her business is going steady. For the weddings she’s catered to, none have mentioned being postponed from 2020. 

The biggest change in business she’s seeing is that Hillside is moving out of downtown to a new location on Powell’s south side, across from the Veterans of Foreign Wars post. 

“It’s going to be laid out perfectly for us,” Hill said. “It used to be a welding shop, so we’re going to have to girl it up a bit.”

They were operating out of the location by the end of December. 

There’s little indication that the wedding industry in the Basin will be slowing up soon. That means, if you are planning to get married, it’s a good idea to start making reservations now before everything gets booked up.