We're All In This Together: A Note From Publisher, Thea Hargrove

Long anticipated as a big year for weddings, 2020 began with venues quickly filling up and the service providers booking their calendars—and then everything came to a screeching halt! 

I feel as if I’ve been dredged through the muck, which is what happens when a wedding magazine experiences all social events being postponed. But, as I sat in my home office, working longer hours than usual for this particular production as our deadlines were coinciding with the increasing concerns of the COVID-19, a sparkle of hope emerged as I discovered something amazing. Despite all the craziness surrounding us, I witnessed our web traffic steadily increase, higher than usual for this time of year. Could that really be? Are couples still planning their wedding day? It was you, our wonderful couples filled with hope, moving forward, compelled by your dreams and your innate sense of uniting your families and celebrating your love. Perhaps it had more to do with all of us being at home and having more free time, but the message became clear: Even if we do have more time on our hands, the dream of your wedding day is as important now as it has ever been, if not more so! 

With that awareness of your unwavering hope, I pulled myself into action to keep moving forward. As I began reaching out to all of our California Wedding Day members to learn what was happening on the front line, I discovered more incredible stories. The community of vendors was steadfast in its action to comfort each couple while finding solutions for postponements, rescheduling wedding dates, locating new venues and vendors, and doing whatever it took to ensure that each couple’s wedding day would be magical. Our professionals found solutions, such as adapting engagement shoots to occur in our own backyards and using cute props like rolls of toilet paper and disinfectant wipes (to document this historic occasion); catering companies shifted their kitchens from producing fare for events to delivering meals to all of us restricted at home.I have long known that the wedding industry is made up of fiercely passionate individuals who live and breathe to create meaningful memories and experiences, but this moment revealed a new level of what this community is all about; a community founded upon contributing to other people’s life experiences. As you f lip through the pages of our magazine, visit our website or explore our social media, I am confident you can turn to California Wedding Day’s collection of members, who have been through the thick and thin of it, to guide us all back to beautiful wedding days. In the midst of chaos, there is always a hidden wisdom; and one thing that has always been true, but is evident now more than ever, is that we are all truly in this together. We are together in business, in our economics, in our global climate, in our health, in our traditions, in our futures and in our family’s future. And this all begins with the celebration and unity of love!~ Thea Hargrove, Publisher of California Wedding Day