17/09/2020
What’s going to happen once we’re allowed to have weddings again ❓What will social distancing at a wedding look like❓ How can you keep loved ones safe❓
These are the questions on the lips of brides and grooms, guests and the wedding industry as the world begins to open up again after the Covid-19 lockdown.These are the questions on the lips of brides and grooms, guests and the wedding industry as the world begins to open up again after the Covid-19 lockdown.
What we do know is that there will be a new normal for weddings and there are plenty of ways you can start planning and adapting your big day now to meet this new reality.While your wedding might look a little different, the love, joy and festivity won’t. 💕💕
Here we have 8 TIPS to make sure your day WILL BE UNFORGETTABLE⭐️🌟⭐️ and SAFE as it can be while throwing a FANTASTIC celebration.🥳🥳🥳
1. Add Hand Sanitizing Stations
The best way to contain any spread of germs is to have lots of hand sanitizer and wipes available for your guests to use and display them in a creative way.
Buy sleek and contemporary chrome touchless automatic soap dispensers and fill them with hand sanitizer. You aren’t going to get away from the fact that the sanitising items themselves might not fit in exactly with your theme, but you can arrange them so they work. For example, set up your sanitising station on a vintage dresser with flowers tumbling out of lower drawers for a boho, rustic or festival theme. Lean into cool chrome and geometric shapes if your theme is elegant and modern.
2. Provide Gloves and Masks
Let guests know from the start if you expect them to wear gloves and masks so they can provide their own if they wish. Otherwise, decide how you will distribute gloves and masks to your guests, such as leaving them in an organza bag on each seat in the ceremony room or have ushers handing them out as guests arrive.
Disposable gloves and masks need to be changed so make sure there are accessible supplies in places such as your reception room or bathrooms, with bins and hand sanitiser nearby. Otherwise, you may choose to buy customised fabric masks that fit in with the theme and design of your wedding and guests can take home.
3. Serve Plated Meals Rather Than Buffets
Buffets and family-style sharing platters have been popular for while, however, they’re likely to lose favour as stringent safety measures come into effect. Plated meals will be the standard way of serving, where guests aren’t touching the same spoons or getting too close to the food.
Speak to your caterer now to discuss adapting your wedding breakfast to plated meals, hors d’oeuvres to individual bowl food, and ways to keeping your dessert table or cake display safe.
4. Have a Smaller Guest List
Weddings will inevitably become more intimate, whether that’s due to Government guidelines or couples wanting to reduce the potential impact of their big day. Couples will become more intentional with who they’re inviting and whittle guests down to closest friends and family; those who aren’t invited will understand.
A smaller guest list doesn’t mean less of a celebration or occasion. In fact, you’ll have more budget to play with, which means you can go big on the guest experience and splash out on your priority items like amazing food, a free bar, live entertainment or floral displays.
5. Adopt Alternative Ceremony Seating
Ceremonies will change greatly to keep guests at a distance. Circular or semi-circular seating will become more popular, with spaced out rows of guests around the edge and the couple in the centre. Small bench seating that will hold two to three members of the same household will be placed ‘in the round’ with the couple at the centre to allow everyone to get the best views.
Guests may even be assigned ceremony seating in the same way as a reception. This way you can keep family units and ‘social bubbles’ together and avoid seating elderly grandparents or at-risk loved ones near someone you know may be more exposed in a key worker role.
Don’t be surprised to see short ceremonies with guest standing for the whole time too!
6. Create Break-Out Dance Floors and Bars
Dis-dancing, or dancing at a social distance, is still very possible. Consider having multiple smaller areas for dancing around the reception room to avoid too many people in one space. We love having an X-shaped reception table design with two long banquet tables that essentially splits the room up into four quadrants
Couples will similarly set up a few bars around the venue so no one area is too busy at once. This is a great opportunity to utilise outdoor spaces.
7. Livestream Your Wedding
For loved ones who can’t attend, we’ll see more couples livestreaming their wedding. Elderly relatives or those at-risk may not want to be in a large group, so take a digital-first approach right from the start. Allow them to watch your wedding live on a video platform, record a message for a digital guestbook, and share in your day by sending them a little bottle of champagne and a wedding favour and emailing the order of service ahead of time.
8. Personalize Everything You Can
With fewer guests and more time to plan, you might want to think of micro ways you can customize and personalize your wedding for guests. Because you may not have the same level of physical contact with the people you love, you’ll want to find different ways to connect, laugh, and communicate your gratitude to them.
-Write notes to each of your guests and leave them on their
place settings
-Include flowers grown in loved ones’ gardens in you bouquet
or centrepieces
-Mail welcome bags to you guests in advance, and include a
small personalized bottle of sanitizer and a mask
-Name tables after the favourite places in the world you’ve
travelled and where you’ll go on you honeymoon
-Serve signature cocktails that include all your favourite spirits
and flavours, even better if you can serve them with fun pun
names based on you as a couple
-Ask guests to nominate songs for your reception playlist or
for your band to learn for the night
