Planning a Wedding during a Global Pandemic
PLEASE NOTE: This Pandemic Blog will be regularly updated and added to as time goes on.
Welcome, it’s currently the year 2021, and at certain points this last year or so, have felt like we’re in the middle of a psychological thriller based on the novel 1984 by Herman Melville and Outbreak (1995).
Nothing is as it seems, plans you made a year ago are cancelled or rescheduled. Precious lives have been lost, lives have been forever changed and it appears most people are settling into a new normal and ready to resume their lives that have been, for the most part, put on hold for the last year.
Whether you’ve planned and replanned your wedding 3+ times in the last year, are newly engaged, just beginning your adventures in wedding planning, or are a fellow vendor searching the depths of the internet for other ideas to make the “new normal” wedding be as fulfilling as possible for the couples who have put their faith in you to navigate the situation where protocols are changing one week to the next. This blog post is for you, sit back, attempt to enjoy or go back to google and find a fluffier wedding blog.
So… where do we start?
Start by planning your wedding/elopement with the strictest pandemic guidelines laid out. If this brings you to tears or wish sleepless nights with bubble guts on your local politicians, stop right there. Unless there is a pressing reason to tie the knot, (sick family member, significant other deploying, risk of deportation, religious convictions require a matrimonial union to copulate) Unless your money supply is endless or you know something everyone else doesn’t wait. I can already feel the death stares and passive aggressive social media jabs now from some of the more precarious wedding and event vendors.
If even the slightest eye twitch occurs when you think of a pandemic wedding, I’d honestly give things another year before you begin planning a big shi bang. We really don’t know which way the world is turning.
If you’re okay with planning a restricted wedding with options to increase guest list and festivities later, stay with me.
I’ll try to make this as painless as possible and include sarcasm and poorly timed jokes to make this a little bit easy on the both of us.
Below is a list of items and suggestions I’ve compiled to help set the stage for a “safer ”wedding during this period of time.
Travel Sized Hand Sanitizer places to purchase
Rental Handwasher Stations (locations to rent from will be included shortly in our preferred vendors tab)
Hand sanitizer at bar/food service, do you provide this or does the vendor? Ask your vendors, catering may or may not offer this.
Hire buffet staff (no self service) shields for buffet bar, gloves and face masks for staff
Venmo/Online Tipping ( it is important to remember that the best way to pay for your wedding vendors is via credit card following the signature of a contract. This protects you and your monetary investment.
All staff to be masked and those providing food/drinks to wear disposable gloves.
Prepare Mixers ahead of time.
Disposable dinnerware or safety protocol for handling used dinnerware/glasses.
Alternatives to Guest books
Adding the parts of your reception into your wedding ceremony (toast) speeches, cake cutting, first dance
Temperature Checks for all guests and members of your party
Enough face masks for each person attending your wedding. (50 available at staples for approximately $12.74 per box) Did you know you can order personalized cloth masks as a pandemic wedding momento? (You can also ask me to make some fancy pantsy ones, with rhinestones or whatever embellishments your sweet little heart desires. )
Hand sanitizer, at least one 16 oz bottle per table, with one at each decorated table. (Dessert table, bar, gift table, guest book… etc.) Prices vary and, if you’re feeling a little extra, you can order personalized individual hand sanitizer bottles at (insert website link)
6 Foot Spacing signs ( Appropriate at the entrance for since guests will be delayed entry for temperature checks, bar area, and buffet if you choose to go that route.) Click here for 6 ft. Social Distancing Signs.
What does a Pandemic Wedding and Reception look like?
Depending on the severity of your locations phase of restrictions.
The most restrictive weddings of 2020, included temperature checks at the door with face masks required upon entry. Guests were seated socially distanced by house hold. What does this look like? For the most part, it still looks the same. Though recommendations are to have guests sit by house hold with 6 feet between each group.(insert picture use one of the ones from golf club at new castle) once you get past the fact that the aesthetic of the guest seating arrangement is slightly altered, it’s not that bad. But here is the funny part. Even when you do space out the chairs, your friends and families swap seats or move closer to whoever they want to gossip with during your ceremony. I have not seen vendor managers/vendors leaving the second someone gets sick of their mask or invades another guests personal 6 foot bubble.
During the ceremony, most wedding attendants are choosing to stand at normal spacing both with and without masks. Still walking the processional/recessional linked by the arm, walking single file, and walking side by side.
Your officiant will most likely be spaced six feet away from you with or without a mask (don’t forget microphones)
Your ceremony will begin as usually.
What happens in the middle varies.
If a reception is not allowed, your venue owners and most vendors have found a happy medium with traditional elements of the reception being allow to take place during the ceremony. The standard festivities are, first dances, parental/vip dances, cake cutting, and a champagne toast, both with and without speeches.
There have been bans on life performers, disc jockeys, and dance floors. However, there have also been boot leg receptions that focused on coming together with family and friends while also being respectful to those who choose to fully cooperate with their states pandemic guidelines and mask/socially distance.
