Newport Daily News
NEWPORT Although the staff at OceanCliff Resort had decorated the ballroom with white table cloths, delicate flower bouquets, ornate dining chairs and a marble wedding cake, no one on Tuesday was getting married. Instead, the setup is a part of an ongoing effort to reopen Rhode Island’s struggling wedding industry.
“The biggest thing is keeping people safe, but letting people be able to celebrate again, and also putting people back to work,” said Luke Renchan, a spokesman for The Rhode Island Coalition of Wedding and Event Professionals. “Some of these couples have postponed their wedding three times because of a lot of these heavy restrictions. It s just a matter of showing what we can do to keep people safe and keep them in a structured environment.”