Before the COVID-19 pandemic, planning a wedding was already a challenging feat. Now, three years into a post-COVID world, scheduling a safe wedding ceremony and reception has become even more complicated.
In the past three years, couples worldwide have rescheduled and restructured their original wedding visions to host their celebrations with safer circumstances. As a result, these mass changes in considerations and trends have caused the wedding industry itself to alter.
This article will discuss everything to consider when planning a wedding during COVID. To learn more about planning and navigating your wedding coordination, keep reading!
Let’s discuss the following points below:
- Early planning
- Choosing your wedding date
- Revise your guest list
- Take precautions
- Vendor considerations
- Flexibility is key
Let’s get started!
Early Planning
It may seem like planning your wedding as soon as possible is no longer productive in the unstable and ever-changing circumstances of 2022. However, despite the vast number of inconsistencies, it’s still important to remember that planning a wedding takes time.
Therefore, the earlier you begin the process of planning and finding a wedding date, the better chances you’ll have at securing the wedding date, reception, and vendors you prefer.
With so many couples still making up their weddings from the previous two years, availability for most venues and vendors is lower than ever. Consider reaching out to a wedding planner as soon as possible to begin carefully mapping out your future nuptials.
Choosing Your Wedding Date
Every couple must first consider their wedding date when planning a wedding during COVID. Before COVID, looking months and sometimes even years in advance to pick a wedding day was already tricky. Now that COVID-19 is an ever-present detail in wedding planning, deciding on a future wedding date is even more complicated.
Since the pandemic’s beginning, some couples have had to reschedule their wedding day multiple times. With so many cancellations, choosing a wedding date and signing a contract with a venue is nerve-racking. However, couples can take several different steps to help choose a wedding date with confidence. Check out some of our advice for choosing a wedding date below.
Host an Off-Season Wedding
If you’ve always preferred winter wedding schemes over traditional spring, summer, and fall celebrations, consider planning an off-season wedding. Not only are winter weddings usually lower in price to host, but these celebrations also tend to be smaller compared to summer blowouts. So let your wedding be a more intimate, affordable, and safe affair.
Avoid Back-To-Back Weddings
In the summer, you may notice that weekend weddings tend to be a back-to-back trend. As a result, couples often jump from one wedding to the next and so on. If you’re planning a future wedding date, try to avoid wedging your special day into this busy wedding schedule. Jumping from wedding to wedding will only increase the chances of your guests contracting COVID at your wedding.
Instead, choose a wedding date that will give your guests and wedding party enough time to take an accurate COVID test.
Elope
Are you tired of anxiously trying to decide on an official date for your wedding? Elope! There are so many benefits to eloping. Countless couples have chosen to elope during the pandemic to avoid frustrating wedding plans. Eloping can look different depending on your preferences.
For example, many couples choose to legally marry in a private ceremony but also plan to host a wedding celebration in the future. Other couples married and held intimate weddings in destination locations. Whether you choose to elope or not, marrying your significant other without the stress of COVID restrictions is highly rewarding.
Revise Your Guest List
While your dream wedding might include up to 200 or 300 of your closest family members, hosting a smaller guest list is wiser in 2022. The more guests you invite to your wedding, the higher risk there will be of COVID exposure at your wedding.
Apart from the immediate concerns of gathering large numbers of people into one space, wedding venues have also experienced limitations. Depending on the location, many wedding venues have changed their wedding event capacity allowances to host safer celebrations. Make sure to ask your venue coordinator whether any COVID capacity considerations exist in their building.
It’s understandable to want all your closest loved ones present to celebrate your wedding day. However, keep in mind that a more intimate gathering could ensure that each of your friends and family members is safe.
Precautions
Planning a wedding in a post-COVID world means taking a variety of precautions. Precautions help minimize chances of COVID exposure and keep your guests safe. Required precautions can also differ by state. Check out some of the biggest COVID precautions you should take at your wedding below.
Encourage Masks
The CDC recommends using facial masks to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. These materials prevent germs from spreading and infecting other guests. If you’re hosting a wedding during the pandemic, encouraging guests to wear a face mask could make a significant difference in safety.
Not only will masks help stop the spread of germs, but these accessories also make wonderful party favors. Create custom masks for your wedding and hand out these accessories as guests enter your venue.
Leave the Buffet Behind
Buffets are typical at most weddings. Many couples choose a self-serve setup where their guests choose their wedding meal buffet-style. However, while buffets are convenient, they are no longer the best option for a post-COVID world.
Buffets make it easier for guests to leave potentially infectious germs on shared food items, which is no longer a risk most couples want to take. Instead, opting for a traditional dinner service with individual plate presentations is a safer choice. Although this option tends to be more expensive, your guests will be less likely to come into contact with COVID-19.
Establish Multiple Dance Floors
One of the hardest precautions most wedding planners struggle to navigate is dancing. Traditionally, reception venues featured large dance floors with live entertainment. Guests were encouraged to gather on the dance floor and celebrate.
Since most live entertainment crews no longer encourage large gatherings in small spaces, getting the mood right for your reception can be tricky.
A common new solution to this problem is creating multiple small dance floors around your reception space. More and more couples collaborate with their wedding planners to reimagine reception spaces and designate smaller, natural areas to encourage dancing. Although it may not look or feel the same as a traditional wedding mosh pit, these extra dance floors will help guests celebrate comfortably.
Vendor Considerations
The pandemic has not been easy on anyone or any business, vendors included. As you plan your future wedding, it’s important to keep in mind that your vendors’ health, safety, and payment matter.
Photographers, videographers, or catering services may all have inflated prices due to the instability of the past three years. Vendors may also have new clauses in their service contracts to protect their payment in the case of cancellations or rescheduling.
Rather than becoming frustrated by these changes, it’s important to remember that the wedding industry is still bouncing back from many 2020 and 2021 losses. So, prepare to support your vendors and pay for these changes as you plan your future wedding.
Flexibility Is Key
No matter how soon you start planning or how much care you put into precautions, there is still no way to guarantee that circumstances around your wedding won’t change. Post-COVID weddings are all about accepting flexibility.
Whether there are changes in your vendors’ pricing, your wedding date, or the venue location, it’s critical that engaged couples understand that most of these considerations are out of their control.
Rather than becoming frustrated by these inevitable changes in your wedding plans, focus your energy on concrete plans that will benefit your wedding. For example, focus on saving for your wedding or joining pre-marital counseling to reduce planning stress. These small commitments will both make a major difference in your wedding planning process and make the experience considerably more enjoyable.
It’s hard to accept that traditional wedding planning in a post-COVID world is currently impossible. However, we encourage brides and grooms to embrace change rather than getting stuck with overwhelming ceremonies and receptions.
The Takeaway
We hope this guide on everything to consider when planning a wedding during COVID has been beneficial. Remember to start planning early, take time to consider your wedding date, revise your guest list, take plenty of precautions, expect changes in your vendors’ pricing, and remain flexible.
Taking the time to keep each of these considerations in mind will better prepare you for some of the unexpected and unforeseeable changes in your wedding plans.
To read more tips, tricks, and advice on wedding planning, explore more of Everyday Bride’s website. Here at Everyday Bride, we provide articles and resources from expert wedding vendors from all over the country. So, whether you need advice on planning your wedding, tips for posing for wedding photos, or tricks for coordinating your future honeymoon, Everyday Bride has plenty of resources available. Browse through our blogs to learn more.
