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Maine couples forced to postpone weddings due to coronavirus, COVID-19

For many couples...one of the happiest days of their lives has been put into question because of coronavirus. Many scrambling to find new dates

MAINE, USA — It's considered to be one of the best days of your life, but due to coronavirus, COVID-19 many of those weddings are up in the air. 

Tiffani and Jake Parker were supposed to get married in April.

"We met online like 4 years ago and he came over here in A-K-1 fiance visa," said the bride, Tiffani Parker.

Jake's family was supposed to come all the way from England for the big day.

Now their wedding is scheduled for September, and that is if everything with coronavirus calms down in five months.

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"Even though we are both young, and we don't have any underlying conditions..we have a lot of family members who are elderly or have underlying conditions.. and we did this for them," said Tiffani Parker.

Chuck McKay owns Meadowbrook Reception Center in Eddington, an all-inclusive wedding venue. You only have to get the flowers and wedding dress separate. 

"We do it all right here so it's stress-free for them to postpone," said McKay.

But it has not been so stress-free for him.

"It's very stressful financially because you don't have any income coming in for the next couple of months," said McKay.

The Lucerne Inn is another popular venue that had to scramble for new dates to accommodate its brides and grooms that were scheduled for the next couple of months. 

"Obviously inquires have near trickled to near zero, we get 20 to 30 plus inquires a week, and everything has been canceled," said David Silverman, the owner of the Lucerne Inn.

"If they wanted a spring wedding they might not going to be able to have it until the fall or winter," said Jayne Silverman, the owner of the Lucerne Inn.

The Silvermans say that they will have no issue accommodating their weddings for the future and hopes everything returns to normal to be able to do so.

"The uncertainty which is the popular word in this industry right now is just enormous," said David Silverman.

The coronavirus is also messing with the wedding dresses as well. 

Ruby Bhandari is a wedding dress designer. 

"We too are shut down..and now I'm getting panic calls, if I can go to my studio and do video calls with them and I can show them what's available," Bhandari. 

Bhandari says most dress fabric and silk come from China and Italy so she opted to buy for this time from India. This week India's manufacturer told her they won't be able to export into the United States for more than 20 days.

"A lot of those dresses are done and the biggest problem that we are having now is that the ones that have been delivered to our studio..people can't come or they aren't coming to pick it up because they have to pay the rest of the dress," said Bhandari.

"I do everything I can to make it less stressful but tears are going to fly, there is no doubt, it's not turning the way they wanted it, and it's emotional for everybody," said McKay.

At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus

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