Skim social media and there is a deluge of tearful posts from what have become known as 'Corona Brides' – those with long held wedding plans now up in the air.

"It feels horrible. We take turns in crying. One day I cry, he comforts me, one day he cries, I comfort him," said Sivan Ben Kalifa, a Finance Director in Herzliya in Israel. 

In the planning for months, her destination wedding to British IT developer Sacha David is due to take place in May. Government restrictions in Israel mean wedding venues have closed and gatherings are now limited to five people. 

Read more: UK lockdown exit: When will the UK risk easing back restrictions?

"It is devastating," said Sacha David. "We had planned a big lavish wedding in a beautiful location for a year for 300 people, 100 coming from abroad, including my mum, and now we are facing the issue of it being just three people. Me, Sivan and the Rabbi," he said.

"The state here says they will refund deposits if we do have to cancel, but I don't know about all the international flights booked by our family coming from abroad," he said. The couple are considering creative options such as streaming their wedding ceremony, if it can go ahead at all.

Widespread lockdowns and public gathering limitations around the world have made a wedding in the foreseeable future near impossible.

The UK government banned weddings on 23 March. Unlike funerals, which can still take place during lockdown, albeit only with immediate family present, all wedding ceremonies and registrations have been put on hold.

Research from wedding planning app Bridebook, says the new coronavirus will directly affect up to 64 percent of UK weddings this year by postponements, cancellations or travel logistics. 

With lockdown and social distancing, the wedding industry around the world is set to lose around $108 billion in revenue.

Read more: Grief during a pandemic: How COVID-19 is changing losing a loved one

Weddings are big business. But this season is on hold because of COVID-19 - and suppliers are running huge losses.

"It has affected us a lot. Our boutique is closed so we can't do appointments and we can't sell dresses. And our wholesale clients are all closed so we can't operate that side of the business as well," said Marina Kvasova, managing director of the bridal salon Katya Katya in Chelsea, London.

"Help offered by the government is really important for us - it could keep us operating for a couple of months," she said. "Spring time is when we present our new collection and we were about go to three trade shows. All of them postponed or cancelled. Now we are waiting for things to move so we can continue as usual."

Bridebook says nearly a third of weddings around the world take place between April and June. But the pandemic means 64,000 weddings in the UK, 652, 000 in the U.S. and 12 million worldwide will likely need to be rescheduled.

Those three months are understandably the busiest time of the year for Charlotte Ricard-Quesada, who runs bespoke wedding and events firm La Fete. She is based in London but organises events in the UK and abroad. 

Now in lockdown, she is mainly trouble-shooting as everyone from the couples she works with to the huge network of suppliers she relies on, are wondering how long this season-freeze will last.

"The venues, the cake makers or florists of prop hirers, they are only going to be able to pay for their warehouse rental, their staff, their prop creators for 'X' amount of time without having one single contract come in," she said. 

"Not all companies are going to be able to make it through however long this lasts. They are talking about May exit of lockdown, but what does that mean for social distancing? Social distancing is the thing that is the most important for our industry. You can't hold an event if people can't actually interact and clink glasses together or pick up a canape."

In the time of coronavirus, the wedding business might be one of the industries hardest hit.

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