Wedding industry on 'brink of collapse' as uncertainty lies over June 21st

Wedding industry experts have warned thousands of couples will be forced to delay their weddings AGAIN if restrictions aren't lifted this month.

The government's expected to announce if ALL remaining measures will be lifted from June 21st later.

That means weddings - which are currently capped to thirty people - can have unlimited numbers again and nightclubs can re-open.

But there's growing uncertainty over whether that will happen as cases of the variant continue to rise in parts of the North West.

In the last seven days, Greater Manchester and Lancashire were declared 'enhanced response areas' as cases of the Delta variant continue to spread.

Stephanie Beqo, manager of wedding venue West Tower Country House in Aughton, said the industry can't afford anymore delays: "For us at West Tower it's seven weddings a week from June 21st, but for the wider country 50,000 couples are going to be affected just within that first few weeks if they delay the 21st of June...that's 50,000 couples, their friends, their families."

Stephanie said most suppliers can't make money off just thirty people at a wedding: "If you're a florist or a cake maker and your order sheet has gone from 10 tables and 10 bouquets to two tables and two bouquets, you can see very quickly how in order to deliver that service sometimes it's actually going to cost them money. So off the back of not being able to work for 16 months they're now paying to operate themselves."

"Weekly I speak to more and more businesses, some of whom have been in the industry for over 20 years, that have had to close because they simply can't continue with this uncertainty anymore, they can't continue both mentally and financially.

"When you've got thousands gathered into a football stadium but weddings are still restricted to thirty it just doesn't make any sense. We're currently still operating with the exact same restrictions in place as we were in August 2020."