As our long title shows, after OVER TWO MONTHS of Stay at Home orders this 2020 Spring, today we’d like to fill you in on how things are progressing in terms of Executive Orders in Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, & Ohio in particular AND help give you an idea of what our clients & venues have chosen to do. We’ll ALSO share the projections of the Executive Orders in each of these 4 states that we will be capturing weddings in this year (hopefully- depends on the Pandemic!).
Next week sadly we’ll be sharing an In Memorium of one of our beautiful clients who just passed away from Covid-19 YESTERDAY here in South Bend, Indiana. Today has been rough talking to one of her loved ones about us providing a photo of her for her obituary. The pandemic IS indeed real and it’s hurting our wonderful clients & families. Today we grieve her.
Illinois (Chicago) Pandemic Reopening Timeline
Governor Pritzker’s “Restore Illinois” Plan doesn’t look great for Chicago. The state will be opening up slowly Region by Region based on severity of infection in the cities… meaning Chicago will be the last to open since it was hit the 3rd hardest in the nation of the top major cities.
Phase 1 /2: May 1: Retail Online & curbside pick-up orders ok. Face coverings are reqired for ALL in public. Boating, fishing, & golfing allowed. **Phases depend on PROGRESS.
Phase 3: ____(? Date unknown)_____ Offices, salons, & barbershops, etc opened with capacity limits. Masks still required. Gathering of 10 or fewer allowed.
Phase 4: ___(? Date Unknown)_____ Childcare, schools, restaurants, & bars re-open (with additional restrictions). Gathering of 50 or fewer allowed. Travel resumes!
**Won’t move to PHASE 5 until vaccine widely available.** Conventions, large events, festivals, all businesses, schools, gyms, & sports can resume with safety guidance.
*** Here is Illinois’ plan of re-opening by region: https://www.nprillinois.org/post/regions-and-phases-pritzker-s-plan-reopen-illinois#stream/0
INDIANA Pandemic Reopening Timeline
BECAUSE NOTHING was announced prior to Friday May 1st, ALL of our clients’ wedding venues scheduled through August 1st helped re-schedule our wedding clients to late fall through December 2020 AND others pushed to May through July of 2021.
Phase 1: Our Governor Holcomb kind of jumped the gun (considering we’re the 13th worst state effected by the pandemic) and started our “Back on Track Indiana“ about a week and a half ago on Monday May 4th. On that day most Retail Stores were allowed to open. The mall in the city next to us opened some tiny stores in the mall (big chain stores decided to remain closed). “Essential manufacturing, construction, infrastructure, government, business and other critical operations remain open. Schools remain closed.” as has been the law for all of the above this entire time since March. Churches opened a handful of days ago on Friday May 8th.
***OUR CITY OF SOUTH BEND has OPTED to REQUIRE FACE MASKS in ANY PUBLIC BUILDING or WHILE AROUND THOSE NOT IN YOUR HOUSEHOLD IN AN ENCLOSED SPACE! We fully, fully support this and abide by it with our medical masks when in a plant nursery or grocery store!
Phase 2: Those 65 or older should remain home as should those who can work from home. Just a couple days ago on Monday May 11th Hair Salons, Barbers, and Dine-In Restaurants were allowed to open up with restrictions. Restaurants can only open at 50% Capacity & hair salons cannot utilize the Waiting Room and REQUIRE MASKS.
Phase 3: This starts in a week & a half on May 24th: Gatherings of up to 100 are permitted (which doesn’t help us since our couples’ weddings are far above 100 attendees), Retail can open to 75% capacity, & Movie Theatres can open to 50% capacity.
Phase 4: This starts on June 14th. Zoos & Museums can open to 50% capacity, dine-in restaurants can open to 75% capacity, & recreational sports/ leagues can resume. Offices & retail can go back to full-capacity & gatherings of up to 250 can resume- again, this doesn’t help us much since many of our weddings are in Chicago & Michigan OR are in Indiana and have more than 250 attendees OR their venue has already rescheduled them for late fall through December 2020 / mid-summer 2021.
Phase 5: 4th of July: FULLY OPENED, but** Deciding how to tackle the school year for the 2020-2021 students. Fairs, festivals, amusement parks, & sporting events can resume WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING (?!). Gyms, restaurants, retail, & personal services can be at FULL capacity.
Here’s a link to Indiana’s “Back on Track” plan that’s still valid as of today (May 13th, 2020): https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2020/05/01/coronavirus-indiana-what-we-learned-governor-eric-holcomb-update/3060909001/
MICHIGAN Pandemic Reopening Timeline
Phases 1 & 2: Governor Whitmer (lovingly referred to by Trump as “That Woman”) is trying to keep Michigan safe. Michigan was in our opinions a bit slow to close initially and it’s had devastating effects on their entire state. Michigan has the 3rd Highest Covid-19 Deaths in our nation (of 50 states), so clearly more regulations are being put into effect to slow the spread. Per her Executive Order 2020-77 for the pandemic, Michigan will remain with their Stay at Home Order until May 28th, 2020. This was just extended on Thursday May 7th a week ago (it had previously been set for a couple days from now for May 15th).
CURRENTLY Weddings in Michigan can only happen in 1 of 2 ways: Either at a church/ place of worship OR on the property OF the couple getting married. They can ONLY include their officiant, those who LIVE WITH the couple in their home, & 2 witnesses (WHO have to be one of 3 things: affiliated with the church/ place of worship, the couple’s wedding photographer(s), OR people who LIVE with the couple themselves.
***THE PHOTOGRAPHERS CANNOT PHOTOGRAPH ANY INSIDE AT ANY WEDDING CURRENTLY!! And as with our current restrictions here in Indiana just over the state border, Photographers MUST practice at minimum 6 feet of social distancing at these 5 person weddings and ONLY photograph moments that take place on the wedding day OUTSIDE.
****Florists, boutiques, food vendors, etc. can only offer Curbside Pickup for these items. No Fittings/ Alterations meetings are allowed!
****Salons, Hair Stylists, Makeup Artists, etc. are NOT ALLOWED currently
Phase 3: Manufacturing, Construction, Real Estate, & full-time outdoor work re-opened WITH stipulations & regulations.
Phase 4: Since the Executive Order extends until Thursday May 28th, we are hoping that some businesses really will get to open on Thursday May 28th so that we can capture our (pushed back 4 times) Engagement Session for one couple. Their wedding got pushed back a year and isn’t until February of 2022, but we still want to capture their gorgeous Engagement Session up at Lake Michigan as planned-!
***THIS IS ALL WE KNOW at this time as of today Wednesday May 13th, 2020*** We are awaiting Whitmer’s Reopening Timeline hopefully coming sometime before May 28th (unlike our Mayor waiting until the DAY OF to release any sort of plan).
Ohio Pandemic Reopening Timeline
Governor DeWine’s “Responsible Re-start Ohio” Plan was announced and their Stay Safe Ohio plan is currently through May 29th.
Phase 1: Friday May 1st: Health care providers, dentists, and veterinarians can re-open.
Phase 2: Last Monday on May 4th when Indiana also re-opened retail, Ohio opened Offices, Manufacturing, Distribution, & Construction. These require masks, 6 ft social distancing, SANITIZING WORKPLACES, & SYMPTOM CHECKS.
Phase 3: Tuesday May 12th : Yesterday Consumer & Retail services could re-open. Some of our friends who own PHYSICAL STORES that require hands-on alterations have chosen to stay closed unless by appointment only with only 1 person at a time WITHOUT including tailoring at the moment- only purchasing.
Phase 4: Friday May 15th: Outdoor dining (bars/ restaurants) & Salons, Barbershops, Massage, Tanning, & Nail Salons re-opened.
Phase 5: May 21st: Dine-in at bars & restaurants
**We opened restaurants & things at 50% just a couple days ago, so it seems that Indiana is only 4 days ahead of Ohio.
How this Alters Weddings & Photography
Because of the above information, we’ve had to reschedule many (ALL already paid for 50% or 100%) Weddings & Engagement Sessions scheduled for Chicago, Michigan, & Indiana from mid-March through August 1st 2020- that’s 4.5 months’ worth so far. Like we said, Indiana venues started rescheduling Weddings (ceremony locations & reception venues) in April. ALL of our weddings through August 1st got rescheduled. The info regarding re-opening in Illinois by regions doesn’t make our next wedding after that (August 7th’s in Chicago) look too promising for keeping its date.
Luckily our clients are amazingly strong, resilient, and kind. They’ve all opted to pay in FULL this year & we’ve re-written some contracts to reflect that and their new wedding dates (now scheduled for late fall through December 2020 & mid-summer 2021). We’ve had an Away Message up on our email for months and are currently sorting out the details of future Portrait Sessions & Engagement Sessions. We have to continue to reschedule our upcoming Chicago Engagement Sessions & Michigan Engagement Sessions to when they’re fully allowed to stop Shelter in Place, so that’s been a real struggle daily, weekly, & monthly. Indiana is allowing OUTDOOR Portrait Sessions with ONLY those from the same household (literally- and less than 10) WITH 6 feet distancing, BUT we’d already finished our 2020 couples’ Engagement Sessions between October ‘19 and February ‘20.
On top of that, we DID FINALLY get some government assistance. We got a $2,000 SBA Grant from the government, Jenny then got her $1,200 stimulus check, and Jason got his $1,200 stimulus check in the past week. On top of that we also got almost $2,600 in other business aid. This $7,000 is a bit above our most popular top Wedding Package, BUT after 2 months of waiting, this is not even up to the $10,000 we were promised for the SBA Grant for 1.5 months… AND does not account for ALL of the business lost over the most important 4.5 months for our business. While we are thankful for the government help FINALLY coming after 1.5 months, we are MORE thankful for our amazing clients (as usual)! THEY are the ones who got us through the terror and we tried to return the favor by working out any way possible to help with rescheduling and making things go as smoothly as possible after all of this stress of the unknown for months.
How to Reschedule Your Wedding
Stay up-to-date on dates, information, and announcements for your wedding locations’ state by GOOGLING your governor’s NAME, then Google the Governor’s name (and you can add “open state” or your current date). By doing that you should be able to find articles about your state’s Re-Opening Plans and REMEMBER to click the NEWEST article that’s closest to your current date. You should also refer to the government websites of each particular state because the information is ever-evolving. Things are constantly changing due to the unpredictable nature of this situation, so the laws in each state change accordingly. That makes it very difficult to track since there are 50 states-!
If in doubt on whether you can have your big wedding (with multiple locations and tons of vendors), RESCHEDULE your wedding!! To do so, reach out to your venues in this order:
1) Reception Venue (or ceremony venue if it’s more popular/ large- Notre Dame’s the Basilica of the Sacred Heart for example)
2) Ceremony Venue
3) Photographers
4) CHECK WITH THE IMPORTANT FOLKS in your wedding: Priest/ officiant, bridal party, closest family members, etc.
5) CONFIRM RESCHEDULE DATE (with ALL) OR Look for a New Reschedule Date (& start this process over)
6) Announce the New Date to attendees-! You can do this via email, text, Facebook Event, or NEW Save the Dates/ Invites! New Save the Dates/ Invites may be too costly if you already send invites out, so don’t feel ashamed to go the digital route! The digital route ALSO helps in that it will allow you to communicate with guests if they need to wear masks OR if you need to change the date yet AGAIN if there were to be another NEW second wave/ Stay at Home Re-Order!