NC PANDEMIC PROFILE: Nicole Clayton

NICOLE CLAYTON (The Cloth Mill, The Loft at Steamer Co. 5 and On the Rocks Bartending)

Owner

I’m Nicole Clayton. I’m the owner of The Cloth Mill at Eno River, an event venue in Hillsborough, NC, and On the Rocks Bartending. I am also the owner of The Loft at Steamer Co. 5 an event venue in Richmond, VA.

When did you first feel the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions on your business? March 12, 2020 when my couple who was getting married on March 14, 2020 at a local church franticly called and texted me about how the venue was canceling their wedding and reducing their guest count. I was their planner for the day, and I was trying to figure out plan b and plan c at the same time. Within a 48-hour span they went from: no wedding to 50 people to you can have your 150, to no, you can only have 50, to no wedding at all. They ended up having both the reception and the ceremony at The Cloth Mill and it was perfect. They said it was everything they hoped for and more. It felt so personalized and intimate. And, the funny thing was, one of the grooms had wanted to have it at The Cloth Mill to begin with anyway. So, it all worked out. (laughter) 

What adjustments did you have to make to your business practices in response to COVID-19 restrictions? Being closed – that would be the biggest adjustment. Doing virtual tours. Trying to figure out how to sell the space virtually. Increased cleaning, sanitation, having sanitizer available, wearing masks. Once the mask mandate took effect, then I required masks in the venue.

No real changes to existing contracts. Just kind of having to always mention COVID, and always getting the question: how many people do you think we’ll be able to have? Or trying to reassure potential clients that they can have their wedding either in the end of 2020 or 2021, reassuring them that my venue can social distance like no other venue can. And, explaining to them what we’ll be doing and what safety protocols we’ll putting in place: temperature screenings, waiver forms for every single guest and vendors. Things like that to reassure them that I’m doing everything on my part to make sure I’m providing a safe and healthy environment for them and their guests.

We’re a year out from initial shutdown – what COVID restrictions are still currently in place at your venue? All of them. The temp screening, the waiver forms, the social distancing, masks, sanitizing stations, all that jazz. And, I suspect that mask wearing will continue through 2021.

What has been the most challenging part of being in the events industry in the last year? Dealing with my clients and having people try to sue me and get their money back. The constant fear of running out of money to keep my doors open, my ability to book new events, and the uncertainty that a lot of people still have about booking their wedding.

It was a very dark time from March-June, June-September and September to about November. I had a little clarity in December, and then January hit and that started off very slow so the worry came back. But I always worry in January. My constant fear last year was not having enough money or enough work.

Let’s talk for a second about what 2019 looked like, what you anticipated 2020 would look like, and what 2020 actually looked like. 2019 walking towards 2020 I was very happy. 2020 was going to be my best year of booking. I had multiple weddings every single month. I was booked up for all of the popular months, and even the less popular months I had multiple weddings in those months which was not normal. So, I was like ‘dang, 2020 is going to be a good year for The Cloth Mill’ I was very excited about it. I was feeling good.

First quarter 2020, I had 10 weddings, which is unheard of for me at least, and I was very excited and walking into a very booked spring and even fuller fall. Then, COVID happened on March 15 and I had to shut my doors. All my spring weddings got canceled or postponed, and then, right around June my fall weddings started to postpone, and my reschedules from spring that had previously postponed into the summer or fall, postponed again and then, I saw my entire year blow up completely. I was not very happy in the summertime.

There was no pivoting. I tried, but nobody wanted to bite. Just to have people in the space I gave my couples the opportunity to still have their ceremony and then have their reception later, and they didn’t want to – with the exception of 2 weddings, few took me up on that offer.  

At the beginning of the year, you had 50 weddings booked for 2020. How many actually took place in 2020?

10. I did 10 weddings in 2020.

Can you think of any ways that your work/business or the industry as a whole has improved as a result of COVID? The industry as a whole? No, I think it got worse, to be honest. It tore people apart. It became political, which is what our industry is NOT supposed to ever be. We’re here to make special moments happen, but it tore people apart. Friendships were ruined. It just made things worse. People have villainized venues. We are the villains of the wedding industry because we weren’t allowing people to move dates for free. I never felt supported except by my close friends and family. I can count on one hand how many people actually reached out to see how I was doing, without prompting.

For me, personally, I think my resilience improved. After the summer, I had enough and my whole attitude completely changed. I was business-focused already but I got even more serious and I had to stop making decisions based off emotions and make decisions based off what’s best for my business. Now, there’s no emotion there; it’s strictly business and it has nothing to do with you personally. This has everything to do with my business and my livelihood.

My livelihood was threatened significantly because of this shutdown, and that scared the crap out of me. And I’m thankful that I was able to get some assistance from the federal government because if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking about my venue because I wouldn’t have had a venue to talk about. And, most likely, I would not have a house to live in either.  

You don’t expect the venue to be the conduit to people getting COVID. Correct. I don’t believe that at any venue or any vendor is going to be the cause of somebody at your wedding getting COVID because we, as the vendors, this is our business, and this is the liability that we have. And we’re going to do everything to make sure that we’re healthy before we come to an event.

It’s something that I tell my couples: myself and all the vendors that you hire are going to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that we’re providing you with a safe and healthy wedding. I stress to my couples that they have to talk to their guests because they’re the ones that are coming from out of town, they’re doing God knows what in their day to day lives, and there’s no checks and balances for them. There’s checks and balances for us.

There are some serious, legal and financial, consequences for us. If I don’t take proper protocols for a wedding the first week in July, and I get sick or that event becomes a super spreader event, and then the wedding the week after that one isn’t happening, and the wedding the weekend after that wedding isn’t happening, and probably the weekend after that, too – and that’s all forfeiture on the venue’s part. It is in the best interest of all wedding vendors, especially, to ensure that safety protocols are in place and followed because not only do we care about the health and well-being of our guests, it’s our livelihood.

I’m tired.

Do you think that vaccinations will bring us back to normal by the fall? I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll be mask-less by the fall. I would be surprised if the mask mandates are lifted in all states come fall. I would be completely shocked. A vaccination doesn’t keep you from getting COVID. Even if we’re all vaccinated, I think we’ll still be wearing masks.

How does it compare running a venue in NC and a venue in VA? It’s pretty similar. I think it’s similar in any state that has protocols in place. It’s just a matter of what percentage of open you can be. And that’s where it’s differing right now.

Virginia isn’t acknowledging the wedding and event industry as an industry that can operate safely. They’ve said it: ‘receptions, party and gatherings still limited to 10.’ So you’re pretty much singling out weddings when the state below you has given guidelines and exceptions and has allowed us to operate as long as we follow the rules. But everything else in Virginia is open and able to operate. It’s frustrating to see that and because I’m new to the wedding industry in Richmond, I don’t know if the local industry is doing anything. I think they’re now doing something, but I’m wondering why it’s taken so long? Why is a year later that you’re now putting pressure on the governor to open up? I also think that the reason that he’s keeping it strict is because they started off with 250 people at their social gatherings and all hell broke loose and their numbers went up because there were no protocols in place. Now, I’ve got to really restrict you guys because I learned my lesson the first time. But he shouldn’t have allowed 250 people at the beginning/height of the pandemic.

For North Carolina, when we shutdown, we had maybe a couple hundred cases and then they continued to grow. Was the shutdown (of the events industry) necessary? Because we shutdown but yet cases grew and the same thing’s happening in other countries across the pond – they keep shutting down and it’s not helping. I think there should have been a mask mandate initially and it would’ve been a completely different story.

What is one thing that you want the general public to know about the events industry? We are a business. We are business owners. Yes, we make wedding dreams come true, but people don’t realize how hard we work and how dirty the work is. It’s emotionally taxing and financially taxing as well. To think that we don’t care about your wedding day and that we just care about getting your money is absolutely not true. But we care a lot about keeping our business alive, too. It’s a job. It’s a career. None of this has been ideal for anyone. We know it wasn’t ideal for any couple to have to postpone their wedding. But in some cases, they didn’t technically ‘have to’ they just didn’t want to have the number of guests that was allowed. When we say that to you as a venue, they think we’re insensitive and don’t care, but we’re trying to help you achieve your goal: getting married. And we’re letting you know that you can still have your event here and we’re going to do it as safely as possible, and you have to trust us.