Weddings As vendors work to help brides and grooms salvage their plans, they worry about long-term industry impact. Photo via Getty Images/Shaw Photography Co. Stephanie Lopez and Steve Abellard’s wedding is a long time coming. The Brockton residents have been together for 16 years, and they got engaged in 2017. Over the last three years, they spent time saving money for and planning their wedding (and added a second child to their brood). Now, because of Coronavirus, neither knows for sure whether the April 24 wedding they’ve sent out 200 invitations for will actually happen. On Friday, their venue—the Villa at Ridder Country Club, in East Bridgewater—assured them they hadn’t had any cancellations. However, in the wake of Governor Baker’s statewide mandate that there be no gatherings over 25 people through at least April 6, as well as the CDC’s recommendation that gatherings over 50 be canceled through May 10, Lopez only finds herself growing more unsure. “There’s been a lot of anxiety, but since this latest news this weekend, [we’ve gone] into panic mode,” Lopez says. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, are we going to get canceled? What’s going to happen?’” Lopez hasn’t heard anything new from her venue, but she’s on edge, constantly refreshing her email for updates on what might happen. “We’ve been together for so long and we’ve worked so hard, and you have a vision of how you want [your wedding to be], and I just have no idea [if it will happen] now,” Lopez says. Lopez and Abellard are far from the only couple currently in limbo; many local brides and grooms are facing difficult decisions and a growing likelihood that their weddings will not go off as they’d planned. “Things have without a doubt blown up overnight here and it’s been a […]
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