by Jack Levi aka Elliot Goblet Wedding MC
How to have a COVID wedding.
Planning a wedding is challenging in normal times. Planning a wedding during COVID times is even more challenging.
The big dilemma right now for couples planning a wedding is “How will a lockdown/new restrictions disrupt our wedding plans?”
If you can go ahead:
- What is the maximum number of guests allowed?
- Can you have dancing, and if so, how many will be allowed on the dance floor?
- What is the requirement regarding the wearing of face masks?
- Can you have singing at the wedding?
- Are your guests going to be required to social distance?
- What are the other restrictions?
You will find you are required to follow a COVID safe plan, density limits and a cap on the number of people.
Having overseas guests is currently impossible, and in fact, having guests from interstate can also be a challenge. And there can be restrictions inside your own state. At the time of writing, you can’t travel more than 5km from your home in metropolitan Melbourne for example, so that also makes it hard to have a wedding right now.
What happens if a lockdown is called shortly before your wedding day?
While some couples decide to cancel their wedding due to the COVID wedding restrictions, often the best course of action is to defer. Defer Don’t Cancel. And if you defer, as many couples have done once, twice or even three times before, you then need to:
- Consult the venue regarding a new date.
- Check that your suppliers are available
- Check that family and key guests are okay with the new date
- Hope that guests from interstate won’t be in lockdown
All in all, it can be like walking around mines.
When you defer, hopefully suppliers will be flexible and you will avoid losing too much in the way of deposits.
Where you are in need of people to come from overseas, that is becoming a never-ending wait. One of my New South Wales weddings has been deferred yet again because the groom & his family are coming from the US.
When there is a snap lockdown and you are only permitted minimal guests some couples are now choosing to go ahead with a small ceremony, and then having the big reception sometime later. With one of my Brisbane weddings, a rare short lockdown there resulted in a small ceremony going ahead and the couple deciding to have a big party to celebrate their first anniversary. I will MC that celebration instead. This is a great idea and shows the kind of flexible thinking required to successfully navigate a wedding in a pandemic.
With all of the new possible disruptions to the preparation for a wedding, congratulations to any couple who gets through to the finish line during these surreal times.