MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The pandemic has put the event planning industry to the test. Those businesses are hopeful the remainder of 2021 will have more opportunities to come back from their revenue losses during the pandemic.
Throughout the difficult year, businesses, like Mrs. Post, which makes event stationery and invitations, had to constantly adapt. Owner Lindsey Cross-Lee said the year was unsettling with the uncertainty.
"We just didn’t know where we were going to be or what was going to happen," Lee said.
She and her employees quickly shifted to social media and zoom calls to keep sales going. Lee never thought those tools would help her business keep growing.
"We got shut down, we were quickly trying to do a change of date cards, some of them rescheduled for the fall, some have had to reschedule a third time, others just canceled the wedding," Lee said.
In the last three weeks, requests for invitations have finally started picking up again.
"Right now, we’re seeing a lot of brides coming that are getting married in the fall, a few still in the summer, but mostly in the fall which people are feeling really confident about right now," Lee said.
With restrictions slowly loosening and more getting vaccinated, it's helping these businesses focused on events worry less about having to close their doors. There's now a renewed sense of excitement for what's to come in 2021.
"You got to stay positive regardless of what happens," Lee said. "If we’ve made it through last year, we can keep going on."