COVID can’t cancel love

Blame it on Cupid, the lifting of COVID mandates, or both. 

Wedding vows may have taken a back seat to the pandemic elsewhere in 2020, but in Marion County the nuptial numbers actually increased the past three years, albeit by a small amount.  

In 2021, 2,444 couples applied for a marriage license in the county, a noteworthy jump from 2020’s count of 2,155, when the devastating first wave of the coronavirus hit, according to numbers provided by the Marion County Clerk of Court. 

However, 2020’s marriages were still more than 2019’s, when 2,038 couples united in holy matrimony. 

Courtney Roberts, who owns and operates Protea Weddings and Events with her husband, Joe, isn’t surprised. The couple’s calendar was full last year, in spite of a still-simmering pandemic. 

“We had a lot of out-of-state brides move their weddings to Florida because we had fewer pandemic restrictions than their home state and our doors were open,” said Roberts, whose venue includes a historic 200-year-old barn with modern upgrades. 

“We had full capacity weddings throughout the year,” she said. “I think people are still leery of the virus though because we’ve had an issue with confirmed guests not showing up for the wedding.” 

In 2022, if predictions are right, more couples than ever will pledge their undying love and devotion to one another.  

According to The Wedding Report, a leading research company that collects and forecasts statistics for the industry, 2.6 million couples will say, “I do,” in 2022, the most since 1984. 

Roberts isn’t surprised by those numbers either.

“We are fully booked for 2022, and 2023 will be even better,” she said. 

Penny Baird of Blessed Magnolia Event Planning said 2022 will be a great year for matrimonial bliss across the United States, and locally. 

“We’re all expecting to have triple the number of weddings we normally have,” said Baird, who’s been in the wedding and event industry for nearly 20 years. “We (Blessed Magnolia) are super busy.”

Baird said she also saw an increase in weddings last year versus the first year of the pandemic when everything shut down. 

“Our weddings in Florida started back in October of 2020 because we lifted our restrictions,” she said. “Other states didn’t start back until March of 2021 or after.” 

One noticeable trend Baird is seeing in her business is more intimate and personal celebrations with fewer guests. 

“It’s 2022 and people aren’t putting their weddings on hold anymore,” she said. “But couples are wanting to invest in smaller ceremonies that provide a more personal and rewarding experience for them and their guests.” 

While marriages rallied in Marion County last year, divorce filings were basically stagnant, according to the clerk of court’s office. 

In 2019, 1,495 couples applied for dissolution of marriage, in 2020 the number dipped to 1,450, just 45 less, while in 2021, the number rose to 1,471, an increase of 21 filings, but still short of pre-pandemic numbers. 

But Mary Catherine Landt, a well-known Ocala-based divorce attorney, said her practice has remained busy during the pandemic.  

“I found that during the pandemic, at least from my perspective and practice, divorces skyrocketed,” she said. 

“Some of my colleagues told me they are experiencing the same thing,” said Landt, who’s practiced law for nearly 40 years. 

Landt said financial stress, COVID-lockdowns, and workloads are contributing factors to splitsville. 

“Couples that were stuck at home together may have found out they didn’t like each as much as they thought they did,” she said. “Or people were hit hard financially and that’s a huge stress.”

“You also had all these moms who suddenly had to juggle working and homeschooling and felt that perhaps the load wasn’t being shared fairly,” said Landt. 

However, Landt did offer a little hope for those believing that true love prevails. 

“Fairly recently, at least since the first of the year, things may have eased a little,” she said.  

That should give hopeless romantics something to cheer about this Valentine’s Day.