GRANDVILLE — With Michigan schools not meeting for the rest of the year, shops catering to prom and weddings now join a growing list of businesses trying to stay afloat during the Coronavirus fallout.
Stacey Nelson at Bunny Tuxedos in Grandville says they’ve been getting ready for prom for months and now all that preparation was for nothing. Students now missing out on some of the best memories of high school.
“We’ve had to lay off the majority of our staff which really stinks,” Nelson said. “We have a great team, they’re on m heart a lot.”
Last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered schools ordered schools stay closed for the remainder of the year. Bunny Tuxedos, a huge provider of prom dresses and tuxedos, is now left without their largest revenue stream. Even couples are pulling the plug on weddings as the number of Covid-19 cases continue to skyrocket.
“This is kind of the busy season for our weddings, a lot to them have been canceled,” said Nelson. “I feel so bad for these bride and grooms who’ve been planning for more than a year.”
The Labor Department reported Thursday, around nine million people had filed for unemployment insurance over the past two weeks. That’s a number economists expect to climb with confirmed cases of the virus. Restaurants, bars, hotels, airlines, cruise lines, automakers and entertainment venues all hit hard by the pandemic. Nelson says its hard to forecast what the future may bring for her business.
“The trend in the wedding industry was just bigger and better than the year before, and now its just entirely going to change,” said Nelson.
Now ‘true love’ and cap-stone memories, like prom, will have to wait.
“So everyone in the wedding industry, we’re sitting on pins and needles praying for each other to survive this,” Nelson said.
Bunny Tuxedos sells discounted stock on e-bay, now helping anyone via Facebook, e-mail and phone.
