How to have a Wedding during a Pandemic
Weddings during a pandemic are tough, but not impossible. We’ve been lucky enough to shoot several weddings throughout Covid-19 and we’ve gathered some of our favourite ideas that we’ve seen brides and grooms incorporate into their day.
Live-Stream your Ceremony
Do some research on local videographers and other companies that offer live-streaming services. This is a great way to virtually invite as many guests as you want. They can be part of your ceremony right from the comfort of their own home.
Divide your Venue Space
Some venues are able to divide their indoor space into multiple areas to allow for double the allowed gathering occupancy. We’ve also seen some venues host half the guests outdoors and some indoors to allow for more guests than the listed gathering limits. Talk to your venue and see what options they offer.
Multiple Ceremonies and Receptions
Same day multiple ceremonies and receptions are a thing! To allow multiple smaller groups to attend your ceremony or reception why not have more than one? We had one couple perform two back to back ceremonies so they could allow for each side of the family to attend separately. They then proceeded with 5 separate receptions with 10 people attending each one. They were able to host 50 guests but at different times. Discuss timelines with your wedding planner, day of coordinator, venue owner or even photographer to figure out how to make this timeline possible.
Smaller Guest List
Your wedding day will be busy. Even on the most organized of wedding days there’s no way you can spend quality time with each of your guests. Why not take advantage of limited group sizes during this time and enjoy more of your day with those closest to you. Less guests can also be more cost effective. You will likely be paying for food and drink for each attendee which on average is $100 per guest.
Wrist Band Station
When your guests arrive have them choose a coloured wrist band that identifies their comfort level of closeness to others. For example, Red could signify “Keeping Distance” Yellow could mean “Talking, no touching”, Green could mean “Ok with High Fives”.
Hand Sanitizer Stations & Wedding Favours
If you’re doing table favours or take home favours we’ve seen many mini sanitizer options for these. Extra sanitizing stations throughout the ceremony and reception spaces were also popular this past year.
Served Buffets
Buffets are a great way to feed your guests in a timely manner, however during covid times, self-serve buffets are not an option. Buffet’s that can be served by a staff member to each guest is the next best thing. Your guests will be served their plates instead of making direct contact with the food themselves.
Save the Last Dance
If your reception needs to end earlier in the day because a crowd of dancing people is not possible try not to let that get you down. A great dinner with some of your most favourite people followed by some romantic time with just the two of you could be a perfect end to your wedding day. Rent a hotel room or an airbnb as newlyweds; spend the evening soaking in the day and plan for a dance party to be thrown at a later time. You can even make it more extravagant when it happens! Winnipeg has some amazing DJs and Event experts that will fill your dance floor when the time is right.
Bride and Groom Masks
The wedding accessory you may not have planned for but we’ve seen some cute mask options that look great in photos! Keepsake masks for your guests are also an option. They can be made with your wedding date, a wedding hashtag or even have each of your guests names printed on them.