Tips For A COVID-19 Compliant Wedding
In the best of times, wedding planning can be stressful. After-all, that is why we have a job. Sadly, for many of you, the COVID-19 health crisis has taken wedding stress to unprecedented levels.
To say that we are in uncharted territory would be an understatement. As states work to re-open and find safe ways for people to gather, they are rolling out guidelines for how we plan and set up weddings.
Because so many of our couples have questions, and concerns with how these guidelines will impact their wedding, we put together an information shoot with some vendor friends to mock up a COVID19 guideline compliant wedding. Below is a demonstration of the guidelines in action to help you visualize what things will look like moving forward.
If you have any questions about any of this, please don't hesitate to reach out! We are here to help!
Clean Hands and Added Signage
To help keep you and your guests safe, venues will have hand sanitizer stations on hand like these. You can also expect signage around the venues keeping folks informed on best practices. If your venue is requiring you to provide hand sanitizer stations, or if you are having your wedding at a private property, check out the vendor recommendations in the photo captions.
Rental: The Party Place
Create elegant versions like this one with Canva (its free!) and print it at Kinkos.. Designers like The Lettering Bee or Crave Design can also create these for you.
Seating Charts and Social Distancing
As you are collecting RSVP's you will be assigning your guests to "bubbles". A quarantine bubble is a group of people who are comfortable being less than 6 ft from each other. Your guests will sit with folks from their bubble during the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. While quarantine bubbles can include up to 10 people they can and will vary in size. Table size and ceremony row size will depend on the size of each bubble. While we need to keep the rows and tables 6ft apart from each other, as you can see, it doesn't look weird, and honestly it really helps with the flow of the event.
Cocktail Hour & Food Service
Because self-service stations (like a large display at appetizers) are not as feasible with COVID-19, caterers are doing table side appetizers. A few common trends are to do Tapas style, where small plates of appetizers come out, or to do family style, where a beautiful spread of apps come out for the table. Talk to your caterer about your favorite options.
Dinner Food Service
Most caterers are moving to plated or family style service. Some caterers are doing served buffets. Buffets are specifically listed on the guidelines as a "do not do" but they are listed under self service, so the thought is, if the buffet is served they are ok. We trust our catering partners to make decisions and encourage you to talk to your catering provider about your options.
Bar and Non-Alcoholic Beverage Service
COVID-19 guidelines recommend to avoid things that multiple people touch, like the water dispenser handle, grab and go individual beverages are a great way to handle your non-alcohol beverages. Also in order to keep the bar staff safe, many caterers are using acrylic barriers, just like you see at the grocery stores. These acrylic barriers, can also be used double duty for bar menus.
Dessert Service
You'll want to avoid having food out in the open, and there are a few changes to dessert service. If you want a traditional wedding cake, that is still A-OK. Your caterer will just cut, plate and serve cake slices to each of your guests. We are also seeing the trend of one tier cakes for each table and family style desserts for the couple who wanted an assortment of mini's. Another trend we are seeing are plated desserts like crème brule, or a chocolate torte. There are so many options! We encourage couples to get creative and follow their taste buds!
In closing:
There are of course other guidelines like guest count limits, face mask requirements, required cleaning attendants and social distancing monitors, but those details really vary by county and whether or not your event is indoors or outdoors. If you have questions about how these guidelines impact your wedding, please email us. We are happy to answer your questions.
I also just want to re-assure you that as a Planner it is our job to keep you informed and to use our understanding of the guidelines and our creativity to work within the guidelines to deliver the vision you had for your wedding. We have done several weddings now with these guidelines and honestly we are thrilled by how "normal" the weddings have been. While there is an enhanced level of service and a lot more planning on behalf of your vendors, our couples and their guests are having a lot of fun and are feeling very comfortable.
We look forward to helping you navigate these guidelines and as always, if you need anything, please reach out: info@yourperfectbridesmaid.com.
These Perfect Bridesmaids are day of coordinator professionals. From beginning to end, no detail was spared when Katelyn and her team put together my dream wedding. If there were any issues, I had no idea. She took care of it all with her amazing team.
During COVID times, Your Perfect Bridesmaid did an excellent job of communicating transparently with their couples to ensure that they were all aware of the most updated guidelines regarding government regulations and safety for their big day. They were able to problem solve with me and answer my emotional questions. They were able to come alongside me when I was emotional about planning a wedding during COVID. They made my wedding special, even though it looked much differently than what we were originally planning. In fact, I think it turned out even better.
I would highly recommend them to help with any wedding or event.”
— Anne Marie, Bride
Would strongly recommend YPB for your wedding! Katelyn was our lead planner and was consistently helpful, supportive, warm and patient through our entire wedding planning process.
Having a wedding during Covid is stressful in so many ways and she was our go-to person on all things planning or even brainstorming how to keep our family safe while still making it special.
Not only did we have Covid to worry about, but the day before and day of our wedding we had three venue changes because of wildfires. She was truly our hero! She thought of everything, gave me options along the way, and made sure that we had the support needed to pull the day off. I’ve never seen anyone work so well and sweetly under pressure, and I’m so thankful for her! She is an absolute gem!!! I can't wait to work with her again next year for our big wedding celebration with our community of friends and family!
— Stephanie, Bride