A month after Wuhan's 76-day lockdown ended, stores in the wedding industry are still struggling to stay open
- Wuhan, China, reopened in late April after a 76-day citywide lockdown, but large gatherings are still prohibited.
- Without large wedding celebrations, the wedding industry is struggling to regain clients.
- Few businesses in the wedding industry have reopened in Wuhan, and many have shuttered their doors completely.
The wedding industry has been one of the sectors hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
That's especially true in Wuhan, China — the city where the virus emerged in December — which last month allowed businesses to reopen after a strictly enforced 76-day lockdown.
But now store are confronting another tough reality: Even with the lockdown lifted, business has still crawled to a halt.
That's in part because large gatherings are still forbidden in Wuhan, meaning many people are putting their wedding plans on hold.
"I'm telling you, this epidemic hit us very hard. Our orders for February, March, and April were either canceled or postponed," Li Li, owner of the You and Me wedding gown store in Wuhan, told Business Insider Today.
Li Li's dress rental business has been on Yangtze Street for 24 years. It's a spot that's home to a myriad of wedding stores. Many of them are closed temporarily, while some moved out.
Industry insiders expect the ban on large gatherings to last until July.