Pa. wedding venues look to Gov Wolf to expand capacity in order to save their businesses
DREXEL HILL, Pa. - It’s time to save love. More specifically, Save PA Love.
Countless weddings were scaled-down, postponed, or canceled outright, due to the pandemic. Many of those spouses-to-be and businesses want to make up for what they missed, so they’re asking the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to expand capacity at wedding venues.
Steve Orlando and Allie Ranck were high school sweethearts who went to prom together from Springfield High in Delaware County. Now, 28, they planned a July 2020 wedding.
"We were really excited for last summer. When the date came and it rolled by and we were sitting in our apartment doing nothing, it was a little disappointing," Orlando stated.
They rebooked for July of this year in a Philadelphia venue and are cutting their guest list, hoping restrictions lift.
"It is difficult to cut anyone out. It’s our special day. We want all the people we love to be there," Orlando added.
It’s that difficulty in planning and Pennsylvania’s 15 percent capacity on indoor wedding venues that have the hospitality industry pressing to #savepalove.
It’s a pressure campaign to go from 15 percent to 50 percent.
"What’s wrong with 15 percent?" FOX 29’s Jeff Cole asked.
"15 percent is well below what we’re capable of doing given the fact that we have implemented all of the protocols left by Dr. Levine," Domenick Savino, with The Drexelbrook, answered.
At The Drexelbrook, in a room with a capacity of 1,200 people, there is a lot of space when capacity is limited to 180 people.
Savino and others want an immediate jump to 50 percent in Pennsylvania and seek to urge Governor Wolf to provide a roadmap to full capacity so they can book weddings.
"As the vaccine rate goes up and hospitalization rate goes down, the metrics get better. We should be given more opportunity to get back to business on our own," Savino explained.
The industry wants its supporters to tweet and email the governor. They argue weddings are a $2.1 billion business in Pa., second only to agriculture.
The industry says it can #savepalove safely while Steve and Allie just want their special day.
"We’re excited for this summer to come and, hopefully, we are at. 50 percent and we have the wedding we want to have," Orlando remarked.
For more information on the campaign to revive the Pennsylvania wedding industry, click here.
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