How to Handle a COVID-19 Wedding

This pandemic may have changed your wedding plans a bit. If you have decided to postpone your wedding, that is a completely reasonable response and you should feel confident in that! If you are going to proceed with your wedding, you’ve probably noticed some things aren’t going to look like you originally envisioned. Do not worry! It will still be a magical day!

Here a few things to know on how to handle a COVID-19 wedding:

1.Know How to Manage Vendors

Firstly, you should consider moving your wedding outdoors. With the current regulations, this will allow you to have more guests attend your wedding. Additionally, many venues have been canceling all events for the entire year.

If you have chosen to move outdoors and especially if you’ve moved onto a private estate, you need consider the accessibility of your property. Vendors, like caterers, have a lot of equipment. They need to be able to pull up closely to your desired location.

On the topic of caterers, also think about your china for dinner. Having disposable china is a fantastic option and may make your guests feel safer.

Tent set up will be crucial too. Know that tents should be set up in advance! But only the tents themselves. The linens need to be set out the day of because things could dirty them like birds, bugs or the weather. Also, make sure there is an area for dancing if you want this at your wedding. Dancing can still happen for the first dance or father daughter dances.

Lastly, whoever is setting up your chairs for the ceremony and reception needs to be careful about spacing. Talk to your vendor about grouping families, having assigned seating and having seats spaced out.

2. Giving Your Guests the Best Experience

Likely, your guest list has reduced in size, but that’s not always a bad thing and you still want to focus on giving the guests who can attend the best experience! There are several ways to do this.

Of course, you want everyone to feel safe during these crazy times. Make sure sanitation is accessible for all guests. If you can, providing single use masks can also be helpful!

Now that you do have a reduced guest list, you might have some additional money. One way you can chose to spend this is on your guest! You can now make their experience personalized and unique. Some couples have done this with gift bags and it is incredibly thoughtful.

During the day of, guests don’t want to be flustered with parking. If you’re on a private property, sometimes parking is limited. Ask a neighbor if you can use their parking space or try to have roadside parking. Always consider emergencies when you set up parking and make sure leaving at any time is accessible and consider having someone directing traffic the day of.

Lastly on the topic of guest’s experiences is making sure locations are clear for guests. If you’re outdoors, it can get confusing on where to go next! Some ways to make this clearer are: make signs, put it in the programs, people directing guests, or have your preacher announce it.

3. Have A Day of Coordinator

As I said before, having a reduced guest list could mean extra money. Another fabulous option for that extra money is hiring a day of coordinator. COVID is making the wedding season crazy, get help!

No matter whose wedding it is or where, there will be little things that fall through the cracks. A day of coordinator can help things run smoothly, direct vendors and pick up the missing pieces. I guarantee this will help you be more relaxed on your wedding day.

4. Malicious

Okay, there are just a few more things to consider when considering how to handle a COVID-19 wedding.

Who is doing what on your big day? Like I said before, you should highly consider a day of coordinator for the big day, but rely on friends and family too leading up to it. They can help you manage some of the heavy lifting.

Lastly, know how to get the original wedding day photos you originally planned for. You may have switched venues or moved outside, but you might still want some photos with a cityscape or something else. Trying to go to a different location in the middle of family portraits is difficult. However, doing a first look gives you a good chance to move to a different location. This way you can the original photos you envisioned and you’re not limited to only something like backyard photos.

Hopefully this tips help you with your big day! Things might be slightly different, but there are so many ways to make your day a perfect experience.

For more helpful blogs about that help with how to handle a COVID-19 wedding, view these links:
Managing Your Postponed Wedding
MICHIGAN WEDDINGS AND COVID-19 | HOW IS MICHIGAN GOING TO REOPEN?