Provincial restrictions leaves engaged couples in Prince George in the dark

BC’s restrictions on social gatherings have taken a toll on Prince George’s wedding venue industry.

Jenese Skomedal, Event Coordinator at Northern Lights Estates Winery says many couples have cancelled or postponed their wedding at the Winery since the restrictions were extended on February 5th.

“Since the restrictions were pushed, I think couples have kind of verbalized the fact that this summer will look a lot like last summer, so that has brought a lot more date transfers into 2022,” explained Skomedal.

Northern Lights hosted around 20 to 30 weddings last summer, which is about 50% less than normal, and are hoping to host about 50 this summer.

Currently, weddings can only have ten guests including the officiant and receptions are completely banned.

“It really depends on that ten-person limit, if they extend that into June there would be quite a few weddings that I don’t think would move forward but if that gets lifted by April then we could have closer to a regular season,” she noted.

Skomendal says engaged couples have had to plan their weddings two or three ways, and even consider the possibility of just eloping and cancelling a wedding altogether.

The property at Northern Lights is capable of hosting both big and small weddings, so they’ve managed to host weddings that adhere to restrictions relatively well, however, that’s not the case for all venues in the city.

Sunshine Ranch is a local outdoor venue that hosts up to 150 guests, they’ve already seen one cancellation since the restrictions were extended.

“With 50 people and less, you are lost in the barn,” explained Silvia Laffer, Owner of Sunshine Ranch, “and with the restrictions, I think most are postponing until next year or hosting a small wedding but going to a restaurant to eat because we aren’t catering to just a couple of people.”

Sunshine Ranch was only able to host two weddings in 2020 and currently has seven booked for this summer, but Laffer says she isn’t sure what to expect because of the venue’s clientele.

“Our clients want to have 75-150 guests not 50 and below, that’s why they book with us in the first place,” she noted.

Laffer has already had one couple that was supposed to get married in June of 2021 postpone their wedding a second time.

However, she says most people aren’t that patient and the uncertainty surrounding social gatherings will most likely cause most of the Ranch’s current clientele to elope.