As a new feature on our website, the staff has been invited to share our insights and thoughts on the Manor House Blog. For my first submission, I have decided to look back on 2020 and give my overview on how we handled weddings in the time of COVID.

It goes without saying that last year was a major adjustment for the industry and of course Manor House. Beyond the every changing protocols handed down by Governor DeWine and the fear and uncertainty of what was happening in the world I remain proud of how Manor House circled the wagons. Our venue hosted 140 weddings in 2020 and each of these were special and lovely in their own way.

From our perspective, the paramount issue was keeping our guests and staff safe. We brought in sanitizing companies to santi-mist all surfaces, established hand sanitizing and disposable mask stations in the open areas and developed a deep clean routine that has now become business-as-usual.

That said I can not dismiss the periods during which, in the name of safety, we had to inform our clients that their guests were not allowed to dance. That in order to bring this point home we would not be setting up a dance floor in their reception space. We absolutely appreciated the state mandates on social distancing and dancing but telling our
couples that they could not have dancing at their reception went against everything we hold dear.
As one of the older and larger event spaces in the area we celebrate and welcome all the traditions that make an individual wedding special. We have never been in the business of saying “no”. Saying “yes ” sounds so much better and makes people happy. So we replaced “no” with “unfortunately we can not” and then explained why. At
the end of the day I believe our couples respected the position we were in because we adjusted together.
Every couple has expectations for their wedding. What we worked really hard to do in 2020 was listen to those expectations, layout the limitations that were out of our control and jointly made adjustments so those 140 weddings ultimately were their #thebestdayever.