Wedding bells are ringing in the Freising district

Wedding boom in the district of Freising: Popular venues for getting married are almost fully booked this year.

However, the personnel problem remains unresolved.

District

– you want to get married this year, with lots of guests, great music – and all that in a beautiful country inn?

"That should be utopian," says Bine Heller, event manager at Maiers Hofstubn in Haag, a proven specialist in the field.

"All appointments are fully booked this year in the warm season." A flood of appointment requests is also coming to the registry offices in the district.

Corona is taking a break – the wedding bells are ringing for it.

A wedding is a complex thing

The "catch-up effect" has already set in in 2022.

"We had more than normal operations then," reports Bine Heller, but for this year all good dates - Fridays and Saturdays in the warm season - are gone.

If you are flexible, you can still switch to Thursday or Sunday.

However, a wedding is a complex event for which four service providers in particular must be available: in addition to the location, i.e. the inn/hotel, a music group or a DJ, plus a photographer and a wedding speaker - in the case of a church wedding, the pastor or the rabbi at Jewish weddings.

In the extended circle of wedding designers there are also confectioners and florists who are supposed to make the "most beautiful day" in the life of the bridal couple perfect - but who are more flexible because they can also serve several weddings on one day, as Bine Heller knows.

She is in the process of giving out dates for Saturdays May through September 2024—the final dates.

All “good” wedding dates at the Landgasthof Hofmeier in Hetzenhausen are already gone this year.

In the meantime, however, more and more people are getting married during the week, reports the boss, Anna Elisabeth Hofmeier, who is also the district chairwoman of the hotel and restaurant association (Dehoga).

The season for the big day is no longer limited to May to October: "Weddings now take place all year round", says Hofmeier, "we even had two big parties in January".

The staffing problem remained

So there is no longer any trace of the corona crisis.

However, the restaurateurs in the district were left with a “huge problem”: a lack of staff.

Coping with the year will be "demanding," says the Dehoga district chairwoman, and names an adjustment screw that the legislator could turn: more flexible working hours.

Employees in the catering industry are currently expected to work up to ten hours.

According to Hofmeier, this has little to do with reality.

Weddings often last longer, and there is also extensive preparation and follow-up work.

The willingness of the employees for a long shift is there: "They would like to work long hours on Saturday if they then have free time on Sunday and have more time for the family." However, "every weekend becomes a challenge".

In any case, the suggestion to replace the staff in the middle of the event is not practicable.

Who wants to take over at 8 p.m. and then have to work until the end?

Elisabeth Hofmeier hopes that restaurateurs will finally be heard here.

But you don't want to complain: Business has started well again - and celebrations such as weddings are an important mainstay.

The wedding boom is now also reflected in the registry offices.

Catch-up effect also at registry offices

It is still comparatively quiet, report the registry offices in Freising and Moosburg on request.

"It's always like this at the beginning of the year because most people want to get married in the summer and you can register the date at the registry office six months before the wedding at the earliest," reports Peter Mitterhofer, head of the registry office in Freising.

And the fact that the wedding locations available in the district are already largely fully booked is forcing the bridal couple to postpone the date to 2024.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

Nevertheless: "It's really starting to get going," Mitterhofer notes, the catch-up effect from the lockdown times is clearly noticeable at the registry offices.

In the Corona years, many would have canceled their wedding.

The prospect of a civil marriage for four – just the bride and groom plus two witnesses – and without a celebration put off the bride and groom at the time.

The Moosburg registry office is also increasingly booked: At Christmas or New Year's Eve, many couples would have asked themselves "the question" and now, assuming a "yes", "on the way".

You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.