Wedding celebrations will be allowed from April after the Cyprus Association of Event Organisers announced they would be gradually returning to business following the lockdown to stop the second wave of COVID-19.
In comments to Philenews, President of the association, Constantinos Mosaikos sent told couples planning to get married in 2021 to stay tuned. He is in constant contact with the Health Ministry to facilitate events in the near future.
Mosaikos said the sector employs some 10,000 professionals from catering services, decorators, photographers, DJs to wedding gown shops, has not been able to function for 12 months.
He argued if the sector is not allowed to reopen soon, hundreds will be out of business for good.
“The events industry has always had, before the catastrophic pandemic, a dynamic from March to November with a turnover close to €500 mln.
“But now, with revenues continuing to drop, we do not know how many professionals will survive,” said Mosaikos.
In January, the association said the industry had lost €350 mln revenues after 13,000 couples forced to cancel or postpone their wedding.
According to Mosaikos, guidelines on how the sector will reopen was agreed with the Health Ministry.
Referring to the timeframe, from the first two weeks of April, weddings can have 75 people invited for dinner in an indoor area and 150 outdoors.
As of 16 April, couples can seat 100 guests indoors and another 200 outdoors till the end of that month.
In May, the number goes up to 350 for a dinner party, regardless of guests seated indoors or outdoors, and cocktail reception with not more than 250 people at any given time.
In June, wedding parties can have up to 500 guests and cocktail reception with no more than 350 at a time, while all restrictions are lifted in July.
Couples will need to keep a record of all guests for two months in case there is a need for track and tracing while traditional handshakes and kissing at the reception are banned.
Until all measures are lifted, no more than 10 people can be seated at a single table, while chairs at tables have to be at least 0.70 metres apart.
