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Event planners rebound from pandemic struggles with roll out of vaccines

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HAMPTON ROADS, Va.— Ryan Wynn makes moments to remember.

He quit his full-time job in 2019 to pursue his passion for event planning with his business R. Wynn Collective.

“I had been doing it on the side for a long time, so I finally wanted to just take that leap of faith and just get out there," Wynn said.

Dedicated to the details, he even works while he sleeps. He says he regularly gets ideas for his creations in his dreams.

He has almost a decade of experience, but no one could’ve planned a year like 2020.

“I used to always think that flowers were so delicate, and you couldn’t do stuff with them, but they’re actually really resilient," Wynn said.

Like a flower, Wynn needed to find his own strength last March.

“Everything was going great…and then March, and it was like, ‘oh no, what do we do now?'"

The pandemic put a pause on events, so he got creative as an interior designer, but this year, things are changing again.

“Just this week alone, I’ve had four inquiries for events coming up,” Wynn said. In comparison, a month-and-a half ago he says he had no calls.

Now he’s planning for a season of success and a bridal shower next month at Limitless Event Venue in Chesapeake.

Many postponed events are now back on the books, putting event planners back in business.

After a difficult year due to the pandemic, vaccines are paving the way for safer social gatherings

“Probably around February when we were hearing about vaccines and more things like that, I started getting more inquiries. I’ve been doing a lot of micro-events so there was kind of a huge switch that I hadn’t been getting for months and months," Wynn said.

After a long drought, business is finally beginning to bloom.

“It gives me hope for what 2021 will bring for us," Wynn said.