WEDDING catering firms have accused the Scottish Government of 'pure discrimination' because of a ban on marquees that does not apply to pubs and restaurants.
Businesses were excluded from hospitality support as it was stated they didn’t have to close, despite the majority of couples cancelling ceremonies.
The Scottish Wedding Industry Alliance (SWIA) says many outdoor event caterers are now in a critical position. While most have attempted to diversity with takeaway services to stay afloat during lockdown, it said some had gone out of business.
In a further blow, caterers have now been told they cannot host marquee weddings, despite business owners maintaining they are actually safer than indoor venues in regards to Covid risks.
Weddings can now resume for up to 50 people with a reception afterwards in Scotland but some restrictions will remain in place including a ban on dancing.
(A wedding arranged by Jo's Kitchen, pre-pandemic)
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Pubs and restaurants will be permitted to erect temporary structures for outdoor drinking and to comply with social distancing restrictions.
Business owners say they have been advised that the marquee ban is due to concerns that outdoor venues may not comply with social distancing restrictions as rigorously as hotels and restaurants. Environmental health officers would not be permitted to carry out checks on outdoor venues on private land.
However, a spokeswoman for the SWIA described this as "an insult to the sector".
She said: "Most hotel company owners are not on site at all times, but proprietors of catering companies are on site from the beginning until the last guest has left, and employ responsible people who are capable of carrying out any precautions that are required.
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"They must be trusted to ensure that this is an essential part of their business and they are willing to employ specific Covid security guards to ensure compliance.
"The anomaly is that marquees are allowed in pub and hotel car parks and gardens which will be filled with drinkers. This is not fair to the catering sector in any way."
Jo Lawrence started her own catering company around a year or two before Covid struck, and in that short time, in 2019, she was named runner-up in the Scottish Wedding Awards.
She arranges weddings and other private dining events across Scotland but primarily in East Lothian, Edinburgh and the Borders areas.
After all her events were cancelled she adapted her business - Jo's Kitchen - to provide takeaway meals and says she has worked seven days a week since then to stay solvent, without making any profit.
"Outside catering didn't fall into any of the funding brackets because we were told we didn't have to close," she said.
"Most outside caterers make their money from weddings and in the winter season we do some dinner parties and things like that.
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"None of this was available to us during lockdown so I very quickly managed to find an outcome stream that would hold my business together. I had to make five staff redundant after the furlough scheme came to an end because I just couldn't afford it.
"I've still got two staff hanging on in there. The only thing we could do was take-away food which initially was really successful. The second lockdown really hasn't been as good because there was so many more people going it.
"My anticipation is that when the restaurants re-open next week, that will virtually disappear."
Ms Lawrence said businesses were prepared to accept this because they were anticipating that outside wedding catering would be able to resume.
"But then they put this addendum that wedding on private land and unlicensed venues were not to be allowed at all. Now, that where we do our weddings. We don't go into hotels because they have their own catering teams.
"And the reason is because they don't trust us to follow the Covid rules. Because it's on private land, environmental health don't have any power to enter. We are well established business owners, it's incredibly insulting.
"We are there from the crack of dawn until the last person goes home. Restaurant managers are not going to be there over-seeing every minute of a wedding. We absolutely are.
"We believe outdoor venues are actually safer, it's essentially an outdoor wedding with a bit of covering.
"The good thing for caterers, is that we can make marquees bigger, whereas hotels can't suddenly make their function rooms bigger," she added."
The Herald approached the Scottish Government for comment.
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