How wedding venues are handling COVID-19

Teresa Clayton, Glencliff Manor Owner, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss how she is handling weddings as a venue owner during COVID-19.

Video Transcript

- Our next guest has seen all the trends in weddings, cupcakes instead of cakes, photo booths, even a dog or two. But she's never seen anything like the last few months. She's been hosting weddings for over 40 years, Teresa Clayton, Glencliff Manor owner. So Teresa, look, you have obviously had to make a huge change in your business. You've had a lot of weddings canceled. We just talked with a bride who had her venue-- she couldn't get back in there for another two years. So she had to pull something off. How have you been accommodating people that have had to make changes? Have you been able to move all of your weddings?

TERESA CLAYTON: We have. We've been very lucky. I mean, our brides have been super flexible as to the dates that we're able to give them. So typically, of course, everybody wants a Saturday. But we were able to move them to Fridays, to Sunday, wherever we had the space. So we've been able to move, comfortably, everybody and make everybody happy that we already had booked, which was a lot for April and May.

- What do you think weddings are going to look like in the fall? I mean, you've been doing some mini, mini weddings.

TERESA CLAYTON: We have.

- What are people asking for? What are the trends you're seeing now?

TERESA CLAYTON: Well, I think that, you know, for the fall, and I think for a good while to come, I think weddings are going to be smaller. What I'm seeing now with the couples that we have already booked here for their weddings, they're tending to look like they're guest counts are going to be about half of what they were, if not smaller. I know the first one we've got coming up, they just went from 150 people down to 50.

So I think that's going to be the trend. There's a lot of people who can't get here because either the date doesn't work, or because they're out of the country, or they're coming in from a hot spot, whatever the case may be. I think, though, that what they're going to do is, with the smaller guest counts, I think they're going to maybe treat the guests a little more like royalty than what they were going to do before. They're going to add those extra hors d'oeuvres. They're going to you know do the wine pairings with dinner, different things like that, to make it even more special.

- And Teresa, [INAUDIBLE] going forward are going to be smaller. And what does that mean for your business? How are we weathering that financial impact? And then also, are the types of packages that you're offering to these couples that do, in fact, decide to get married at your venue, are you offering them different packages as a result of the fact that their needs and their wants have changed over the last couple of months?

TERESA CLAYTON: Well, we are. And of course, it's difficult. All of our vendors are on staff. So when you've only got a cake, say, for you know 25 people instead of 150 people, it's a hardship on the cake baker. It's a hardship on our chef. Some of the vendors, it's going to be about the same. But what we are doing, we're offering several different new packages.

We're doing it just a Just the Two of Us. If somebody who just wants to get married, and they get an hour's worth of time, they're going to get their minister, their photographer. They can do their ceremony. They can take great, pretty pictures to remember the day. We'll make them a bouquet. We're going to do one of the Mini Monies with 10 people where, same thing, they're going to get their minister, the photographer, a cake, a little tray of hors d'oeuvres.

But then we're going do-- and this is what I think is going to trend for the next year-- we're going to do Micro Luxury Weddings where we're going to kick it up a notch. You've only got 35 people or less, maybe. And so it is going to be the over-the-top food, the over-the-top service, the over-the-top flowers so that those guests that they choose are going to feel super special.

- Yeah, [INAUDIBLE] that, quote-unquote, "extra money" would be reinvested into the existing guest list? Or, given the fact that our economy is in such great decline right now, and folks have lost their jobs left and right, do you think they'll take the opportunity to say, hey, let's actually cut our budget 200% and let's make it as kind of economical as possible?

TERESA CLAYTON: And there are certainly going to be couples that do that. There are couples who, because of their high headcounts that they had before, they were choosing a very simple buffet or something like that. They're going to be happy about the fact that the head counts are down and the cost is down. There's no doubt about that. I think it's probably going to be about half and half. And that's really happening.

I was just going to say, I heard y'all saying, where do you begin to cut a guest count? And this has been my advice all these years for our brides. When you make out your guest list, think about if you were out at dinner with that person, would you pick up the tab? And if the answer is no, they don't make the cut. Because, in essence, what you're doing is buying them dinner.

- Wow, OK, that's giving us a lot to think about here. Teresa Clayton, Glencliff Manor owner, talking about how her business is changing in terms of really slimming down these big weddings. Great to get a chance to talk with you. And have a good weekend.

TERESA CLAYTON: Thank you so much. I appreciate being on.