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Couples scramble to revamp plans

GREENSBURG (AP) — After their August engagement, Greensburg couple Gregory Mertz and Janelle Stayt planned a dream wedding.

They were going to marry March 21 in Montgomery County, host their reception at Stateside Vodka Bar in Philadelphia and then depart on a European honeymoon.

As the fast-spreading coronavirus raced around the globe, the resulting restrictions and closures turned their plans into “a nightmare,” said Mertz, 35.

Montgomery County was among the first and hardest hit by the coronavirus in Pennsylvania.

“I’m a very optimistic person. I kept saying, ‘This is going to get better,’ “ said Mertz, a Greensburg city councilman.

The couple worked with the Diocese of Greensburg to plan a small ceremony Saturday at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral. Their guest list diminished from 70 to 35, then to 10, as gatherings of more than 10 people were discouraged.

“We are Catholic,” said Mertz, adding that it is important to them to get married in a church and have friends and family attend. “Now, we might be able to have just family.”

The couple was disappointed older family members who live in the eastern part of the state and friends could not travel to attend their wedding.

He credited the local community, from the diocese to the florist to the photographer, with helping as best they could.

They received a refund for their reception venue and hope to re-book their trip this summer.

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Sherri Crock saw her dream beach wedding plans start to buckle just a few weeks before she was to exchange vows with fiance Brian Clise in Key Largo, Fla. The couple planned to fly to Florida with several family members for a March 24 wedding.

They considered driving before coronavirus-related closures finally convinced her to cancel.

“I don’t want a wedding where I have to be afraid. My parents are in their 70s. My grandma is 96. She didn’t want to miss it. It’s been so stressful,” said Crock, 50, of Unity. She and Clise, 44, are both marrying for the second time.

Some of her co-workers suggested Key Largo, and she spent a year making plans.

Most vendors have been accommodating, she said, offering refunds or trying to make plans for another date. She is waiting to hear about refunds for the $4,000 in airline tickets she and her family purchased.

Crock said she chose March for her wedding to try to avoid hurricane season.

“It’s hard. You’ve been waiting for this day. We’ve put so much, a lot of money, into this wedding. I wanted my dream wedding on the beach. We don’t know what we’re doing yet,” she said.

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Shannon Squires, 24, of Irwin went ahead with her March 28 bridal shower.

Instead of holding the event for 51 people at a local winery, she celebrated with a Facebook Live event at her home, topping the guest list at 10.

Squires said she noticed numerous fitness businesses offering classes via social media and decided to hold her shower the same way.

She already has her gown, is making her own floral arrangements and has a family member on standby to bake her wedding cake.

“With everything going on, we didn’t want to not do anything,” she said. “There were a lot of emotions the first couple of days. You have to make the best of it. I thought, it’s time to plan.”

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Vendors are trying to help. MB Bride and Special Occasion in Greensburg is among the many retailers ordered to close by the state. A recorded message provides direction for customers planning to pick up their dresses or keep planned alteration appointments.

Store manager Jenn Mason said many customers are postponing their weddings. “They are calling and asking, ‘What do I do with my dress?’ We will go with the flow,” Mason said.

Assistants were helping prom customers before stores were ordered to close, and finding it difficult to practice “social distancing,” she said. “We have to measure them. We can’t throw a dress over the door and say, ‘Here you go.’ Our hearts just go out to them.”

Mason said the store is still receiving inventory from Europe and Asia.

Weddings still will happen, however modified, she said.

She anticipates more outdoor and park settings as many fall brides already have booked area venues. “It’s just one of those things where you have to ride out the storm,” Mason said.

Trish Derry owns Pop Up Pittsburgh Wedding Co. and Vintage Alley Rentals.

She recalled the recent unexpected closing of Noah’s Event Venue and some of her clients scrambling for new venues.

“This is such a different circumstance,” Derry said. “I feel like a lot of people in the (wedding) industry, restaurants and hotels, we don’t know what our futures are.”

Brides planning larger weddings are trying to lock in new fall or early winter dates.

Derry’s wedding inventory — furniture, ceremony decor, cookie table displays, centerpieces — can rent for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

“Some people are out of work and can’t pay. It’s a case-by-case basis, that’s my approach,” she said.

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