Getting Married in a Pandemic
We conducted a survey in July 2020 to find out how wedding plans are changing due to the Coronavirus outbreak. With so many couples affected we wanted to know how and in what ways your plans are changing. While some were understandably moving their wedding to next year or beyond, some said they would scale back and go ahead this year.
Of those surveyed half are getting married in 2021, 25% in 2020 or ‘when the venue re-opens’ and 25% in 2022. We asked whether they have had to postpone their wedding due to Coronavirus and 50% said that they hadn’t, either because their wedding is far enough in the future that they don’t need to or because they’re going ahead with a smaller gathering.
Have you reduced your wedding size, location or budget due to Covid 19?
Most couples weren’t reducing anything due to Covid 19 and one even said “we’ve got an extra year to save up so will probably end up spending more!” Guest list had been reduced by 30% and 10% said they had reduced their budget.
Scaling back
Some people are choosing to scale back their wedding and go ahead as soon as they can. There are benefits to having a small wedding, and potentially a bigger party next year. One couple decided to go ahead as soon as he venue re-opens.
“We’ve finally managed to rearrange the wedding. We were originally having a small ceremony so nothing much has changed there, it’s at a small historic house run by volunteers so we’ve just had to wait for them to be happy to open for the ceremony. Anyway, we’ve now got a date sorted for the end of August. They have put social distancing measures in place i.e seating of groups 2m apart, but due to the small size of venue, we’re not sure if a photographer will be allowed inside whilst keeping to the 2m rules.
It will pretty much be a case of once the ceremony is over we leave and they lock up, but hopefully the weather will be nice and we can have a few drinks out of a cool box!
Originally we were going to have a party for 70 people after the ceremony, but that will no longer be happening. That is a shame as we’d like to celebrate with friends and family, but we have decided that we will hold a party when it is safe to do so, possibly a one year anniversary party.
Instead we plan to take the 8 ceremony guests out for a meal, but we still need to organise that (we only got the new date at the weekend).
Overall we’re ok with the changes and are adapting to what is needed as we go along. The weather on the original day wasn’t that nice so hopefully a warm summers day will be awaiting us for take 2!”
Going Bigger Next Year
Some couples have decided to move their wedding to next year (or beyond), and have said that they don’t want to compromise their original plans. Some are even going bigger as they will have another year to plan!
Whatever decision you make, it’s not an easy one and understandably many couples are disappointed that the big day they’ve been planning for ages isn’t happening as planned. As well as affecting couples getting married, the wedding industry as a whole has been devastated by the financial implications of the Coronavirus and many suppliers face the potential to go out of business. Let’s hope we can all weather this storm and come out the other end smiling. Check out more tips and advice in this Coronavirus and Weddings article.
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