Gatlinburg's wedding industry hit hard after wildfire
On a creek at the foot of Ski Mountain Road, the small white building that was once Abiding Grace Chapel is now mangled metal scraps and charred cinder blocks.
Gatlinburg's wedding industry, a sprawling enterprise of full-service chapels, eager officiants, florists and other businesses, has been hard hit by the wildfire that roared through this resort town in late November.
At least two chapels burned and the man widely credited with pioneering Gatlinburg's wedding boom, the Rev. Ed Taylor, was among the 14 people who died in the wildfire. Some chapels also have seen a downturn in business, including cancellation of ceremonies by brides and sluggish bookings for next year.
The area's wedding business is second perhaps only to Vegas. Nearly a fifth of all Tennessee marriages take place in Sevier County, according to the state. In 2013, Sevier hosted 10,500 ceremonies – more than twice as many the next closest county, Davidson.
"Our bookings are down for next year," said the Rev. Lee Bennett, who performs about 2,000 ceremonies a year between two venues. "People are waiting to see about Gatlinburg. We've had a quite a few cancellations. If you're in Ohio and watch CNN, and your mother tells you you don't want your wedding there because it will be ashes and soot ..."
Sluggish comeback for Gatlinburg post-wildfire
Bennett co-owns Chapel in the Park and Cupid's Chapel of Love; the latter was a high-profile, full-service chapel with a large sign on the East Parkway just past the main drag. Photos of the tiny white building with flames coming out of the roof and windows circulated on social media in the hours and days after the fire.
Bennett said he does not yet know if they will rebuild.
At Gatlinburg's Little Log Chapel, a picturesque cabin-like chapel that sits next to a pond in the town's arts district, there was no damage from the fire. Co-owner Kevin McKee said there haven't been any cancellations, but some guests had to be persuaded to keep their reservations.
"At the start, no one knew what all the damage is and they said, 'We're scared of coming,' " McKee said.
The booking season typically picks up in January, so it's too soon to know yet if the fire will affect future ceremonies, he said.
Nearby at Chapel in the Glades, wedding coordinator Barbara Martel said some brides cancelled the first weekend after the fires, but there's been little impact since.
Others, though, haven't been so lucky. Casie Raines, who owns Abiding Grace Chapel with her husband as part of their wedding business of 15 years, lost the chapel along with the photography editing equipment.
"It's a pretty hard hit to our business and it's making it difficult to recover," she said. "In that building, we had our photo studio operations and our small wedding chapel – for the quickie weddings. We lost a lot."
The Raines also own two other venues and a photography studio in Knoxville. She said they were underinsured for the chapel and now owe $95,000 on a building that's nothing but rubble.
"The biggest issue I'm running into is there seems to be tons of support for families, but we're not finding any support for small businesses and there are businesses that burned, too," Raines said. "We're going to push forward because this is what we do, this is what we love and this is our family business."
More on the Sevier County wildfires:
- Food City, Hormel donate hams for Sevier County fire victims
- Mental health money sought for Sevier fire victims
- FEMA opens up assistance center for fire victims
- Questions linger on wildfire alerts during Gatlinburg fire
- Amazing satellite images show Gatlinburg before and after
- Preparation saved home from Sevier County fire
