When Victoria's latest restrictions announcement was made yesterday, reception centre director Jude De Silva started getting calls straight away.
"People have the confidence they can book with us and stick to the dates now — so it's absolutely a relief, to say the least," he told the ABC.
In a normal year Mr De Silva's three reception venues would hold large events, including the formals and deb balls for 106 schools across Melbourne.
But coronavirus restrictions mean the business has not hosted a function in nine months.
Under changes announced by Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday, capacity limits across most venues and gatherings have been increased and will be locked in for a few months.
The cap on attendees has been removed and replaced with a one person per 2 square metre density quotient for weddings, funerals, religious services and hospitality venues in Victoria.
Mr De Silva said it had been a "rough ride", but the latest changes made holding functions viable again.
"People's mindsets have shifted, they're positive, they're back on track again," he said.
"I'm just getting back to them individually, making booking times and making times to have a walkthrough of our venues … so it's nice to be back."
Gathering limits increased in time for Christmas
Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli said allowing larger religious gatherings in time for Christmas was a wonderful change.
"The news that's been announced is really important and helpful for Christians and people of faith right across our state," he said.
"It's a really good thing that we can be sufficiently open to welcome good numbers. We want to say to people, 'come, we will be open'."
Funeral director Fiona McDowell said the changes were great for families, and would give more people the opportunity to say goodbye to their loved ones.
"People always need to have that opportunity to say goodbye," she said.
"It's part of the grieving process, it's part of supporting each other, it's a part of honouring their loved one's life and the relationships that they've had together, and what that person means to them.
"And it's the start of carrying on and honouring that loved one into the future, and keeping that memory alive."
Luke Murphy, the manager of Beer Deluxe at Federation Square, said the changes meant the capacity of his venue would increase from 300 to about 900 people.
"People can stand up and drink, we can have big groups in as well, which is exciting, especially for Christmas parties," he said.
Some challenges remain for events businesses
But for many people, getting back to "normal" will be tough.
Ms McDowell says even though the cap on funeral services has been axed, many chapels in Melbourne's eastern suburbs would only be able to accommodate up to 100 or 150 people under the one-person-per-2-square-metres rule.
"A lot of families are disappointed, thinking they can have an unlimited number of people — that actually isn't the case, because of the square metreage that applies to the cemetery chapels around Melbourne," she said.
The funeral director also said a "tricky" element of the coronavirus rules was having different limits across different funeral settings.
"Hopefully it's not too long away that we can have the same number in our chapels as we can at graveside, and then accommodate those people at refreshments afterwards," she said.
"Because as it is at the moment, there's three different numbers we're trying to incorporate into one funeral."
For Mr De Silva, one of the next challenges now that events are starting up again will be hiring staff back to work at them.
"My team has depleted — we had 15 full-time staff and 95 casuals and it's hard to get people back on track again," he said.
"But looking at the positives, we can do events now. So if people are willing to work, we'd love to hire them back again."
'Really rewarding' changes after long, difficult year
The changes have brought a massive wave of relief over many events businesses in Victoria.
Mr Murphy said he was looking forward to being able to host more people and give his staff more shifts after such a difficult year.
"It's been a long tough year for everyone, and it's really exciting to finish it on a high," he said.
"It's really rewarding after such a long year to be able to finish it with friends, family and good times."
Archbishop Comensoli said the state had got to this point thanks to the collective effort of people in Victoria.
"The great efforts of everyone to be cautious and mindful, to practice good habits, has all helped," he said.
"I hope that sort of attentiveness will continue and that we remain caring of one another — that would be a wonderful thing."
