Why the Coronavirus COVID-19 is Canceling Weddings

Why the Coronavirus is Canceling Weddings

April 1, 2020

With the whirlwind of tumultuous news and events happening continuously as of late, it comes as no surprise that the coronavirus pandemic has finally reached the wedding industry. Unfortunately, that means that one of life’s biggest moments has been temporarily cancelled for many concerned couples. If you or your venue are facing an upcoming cancellation, we have a few thoughts and recommendations. We are here to help you better understand why the coronavirus is canceling weddings and receptions all across the United States.

How Weddings are Being Affected

From weddings to funerals, the coronavirus is canceling life’s biggest moments and leaving families heartbroken because of it. The wedding industry and professional DJ services are starting to feel the potential ripple effects and are trying hard to adapt in these uncertain times. No matter the event, cancellations are occurring more frequently all across the board in order to increase the essential practice of social distancing. Recently, a school superintendent said something very profound in his address canceling school for the next three weeks to help stop the spread of COVID-19:

“In the end, it will be impossible to know if we overreacted or did too much, but it will be quite apparent if we under reacted or did too little.” – Darrin Peppard

Those words still ring true as to why we are seeing an uptick in wedding cancellations locally and nationally. For most couples, the reward is not worth the risk. Health and safety of family and friends must come first. Social gatherings and the wedding season have been put on hold. Therefore, the difficult decision to abruptly postpone your upcoming wedding in 2020 may be inevitable.

New Clients: No Deposit Due for 90 Days

To give our new clients peace of mind during this crisis we’ve eliminated our immediate $250 deposit for contracts signed after 5-13-20 for 2020 events. We will hold your date for 90 days without a deposit as events unfold. This gives us a chance to DJ your wedding if things get better, and guarantees you won’t lose hundreds of dollars if the situation stays the same or worsens. The deposit will be due 90 days from the date of account registration (unless your event date is less than 90 days away). However if you change your mind before that, no problem. We will free the date on our calendars with no obligation from you.

Our Cancellation Policy for Current Packages

All of our bookings in Northwest Ohio for April, May, June, and most of July have rescheduled already, a few have unfortunately canceled altogether. Therefore, we are taking a pretty hard hit. We truly care about our clients and want to be a part of their big day in the near future. All deposits will still be good for all rescheduled dates, in other words you do not have to put down a new deposit for your rescheduled date. At Jason Kent Sound and Lighting, our policy for rescheduling a wedding package is pretty simple and straight forward. Our three options are as follows:

1. Reschedule with your same assigned DJ. We will do everything we can to accommodate your date and keep you with the same DJ you initially booked.

2. If your assigned DJ is unavailable, another professional DJ from within our service would be booked by us for your wedding reception.

3. If we’re completely booked, we will help you by reaching out to another company we know would be a good match for your perfect day.

4. If you’re unsure of rescheduling but would like to have more time to think about a new date, we will keep you in our system as active.

Our policy for cancellations is that we will keep you in our system as “deposit paid” but with an open date. We will not charge you a cancellation fee. If at a later date you decide to move forward with another date, your deposit and quote will still be good for that date. We highly recommend booking a date in 2021, however recent models showing the virus’s spread could take us into 2022. Most good vendors and venues are booked solid until the end of this year.

Unfortunately, we cannot refund deposits for cancellations at this time. The deposit is our safety net and is the only way we keep an income coming in during times like these. With the amount of cancellations and postponements coming in, this is all we have. However we will keep it on file that you did pay the deposit, and honor that deposit if you decide to reschedule with us in the future. And, we hope that you do!

For couples who have made payments outside of the deposit, we will still apply those payments to your rescheduled date. If by chance you do need a full refund outside of your deposit due to canceling the contract completely, we will make every effort to refund that amount as soon as we can minus a 3% credit card processing fee that we are charged by our bank. .

We are a small business and we remain liquid. We do guarantee that we will remain in business, being that all equipment is paid off and our website is maintained in-house, which makes our cost of doing business lower than most other DJ services in the area.

How to Postpone Your Wedding Package

Here are some coronavirus safety tips for weddings and receptions to check out if you are still planning on having your upcoming event with us. Once again, we truly thank you for your loyalty and business. Please contact us or call us at 419-619-2291 if you currently have a wedding reception scheduled with us and are looking to postpone it due to these unforeseen circumstances. Whatever your decision, Jason Kent Sound and Lighting wishes you nothing but the best. Stay safe out there! We hope to see you soon on your rescheduled date with us.

By: Jason Droll

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