BATON ROUGE, La. (WGMB) — After many happy couples scaled back or canceled their 2020 weddings, some say a better year is coming down the aisle in 2021.

Melanie Holton has been dreaming of her wedding her whole life. What wasn’t in that dream is a deadly pandemic. The wedding industry took a big hit in 2020, with thousands of brides canceling or postponing their big day. Melanie is now hoping for the best.

“If everything shuts down again, we have to make that tough choice of, are we really going to be that bride that still has her wedding?” Holton said.

For some brides, the stress is overwhelming.

“As a bride, you want everything to be perfect,” Ashley Campbell said.

Helen Durham owns Gabrielle’s bridal salon. She says after a devastating year, business is finally starting to pick back up.

“We have sold some wedding gowns, but they are for later in the year,” Durham said.

Durham says she’s been having to do a lot of alterations.

“During COVID, a few people put on a few pounds, so we have to let things out a little bit,” Durham said.

On Airline Highway, Debbie’s Bridal has come up with another way to bring in business. She’s making the price one less thing a bride has to worry about.

“[Some brides] have no money [because of the pandemic] they’re trying to buy food, pay their rent, and support their families,” Debbie Traylor said.

At Ambrosia Bakery in Baton Rouge, wedding cakes are flying off the shelves, but they too were forced to cut back.

“We’re pretty much-doing weddings on a regular basis every weekend,” Yvette Folse said. “Most of them are much smaller than normal because of the cut in [the] quality of guests.”

As brides prepare for their magical day, they’re hoping 2021 is the year of their dreams and not their nightmare.