While spring is normally a time for wedding vendors to celebrate their busiest time of the year, this season is sadly laden with financial uncertainty as small businesses grapple with how the coronavirus will impact their bottom line. With a stay-at-home order now in effect for Mecklenburg County until April 16, many nonessential businesses — including wedding vendors — have been forced to close their doors.
As wedding vendors halt operations and engaged couples reschedule their carefully-made plans, one Charlotte startup has taken this opportunity to give back to those in need. Bustld, a site that matches engaged couples to their ideal wedding vendors, has introduced a merchandise line in order to help raise funds for small businesses within the wedding industry.
Helping Out During a Health Crisis
Co-founders and husband-and-wife team, Samie and Ryan Roberts, have long planned for the eventual launch of Bustld merchandise. But with the COVID-19 outbreak wreaking havoc on the wedding industry, the two thought now was the time to bring that goal to fruition.
“Our original intention was to design merchandise for engaged couples,” explains Samie. “But now we also have 'support local' pieces up there as a way for non-engaged or married couples to help give back to the community during this time.”
Within its online offerings, Bustld features t-shirts, hats, tote bags, coffee mugs and much more — all proudly displaying taglines like “support local,” “wife of the party,” and “work from home.” What’s more: 100% of the profits gained will be donated to wedding vendors who have suffered financially due to the global health pandemic.
Along with the merchandise, Bustld will be opening up applications to wedding businesses to apply for aid through the company. The hope is that through these purchased goods, the profits can go towards helping wedding vendors pay their bills, employees, and hold them over financially until the crisis subsides.
Working Together in the Wedding Community
As businesses settle in for what has quickly become the “new normal,” the Roberts have seen an inspiring shift in how vendors are continuing to provide for their engaged couples.
“I’ve seen vendors doing things like front-porch photography sessions from six feet away,” says Ryan. “Florists are delivering flowers to front porches, bakers are providing at-home kits to make cakes with your kids."
“I think a lot of vendors are being as flexible as they can,” Samie said. “People are waiving postponement fees and allowing couples to pick any available date that they have and applying their deposit towards the new date. They’re obviously a business and need to pay their bills, but their hearts break as much over postponing a wedding as their couples do. They’re really coming together and it’s nice to know you’re not the only one going through it.”
One wedding vendor, Fanciful Ink, even provided a free postponement announcement template for engaged couples to download and email out to their guests. The template is currently available through the Bustld merchandise web page.
Words of Wisdom From the Wedding Experts
With so many vendors and couples forced to postpone their plans, the Roberts are quick to offer words of encouragement.
“We got married during a hurricane,” said Ryan. “We had several vendors who couldn’t get into the city and many guests weren’t able to be there. But it was still our wedding, and it was still the best day of our lives. It might be smaller, it might be six months later or twelve months later, but at the end of the day, you get to marry your person.”
“It’s really hard on everyone,” said Samie. “So just be kind and put yourselves in the other person’s shoes and know that we really are in this together. There is an end, and we don’t know exactly when that’s going to be, but when it comes, we’ll continue to love and to celebrate love.”
Applications for affected wedding vendors will be made available by mid-April, with distributions planned for mid-June to early July.
