PLANNING PANDEMIC
Since the Covid crisis started last March, weddings in Ireland have been on a rollercoaster. The various lockdowns and restrictions have had effects in all sorts of ways on how people have gone about planning their weddings and the changes that have developed in what’s expected and required at an event.
The last nine months have seen couples postponing, changing locations, reducing guest lists and cutting original plans all in the name of love.
As we begin 2021, micro-weddings of between six and 25 guests are now the norm; weddings end at 11.30pm, a massive difference from the previous 6am finishes; and there’s been a huge surge in two-part weddings, with lots of couples choosing to elope, often within Ireland, and planning a bigger celebration for when the crisis has passed.
Even Sunday weddings have become more acceptable, with couples who postponed from 2020 taking any date available in 2021, which is set to be a huge year for weddings.
The process of planning a big day is dramatically different, with wedding businesses adapting and offering virtual appointments, special delivery services and flexibility in every aspect. Saying yes to the dress is no longer the big event with a big girl gang in tow, as bridal boutiques are strictly limiting the number of people allowed at an appointment.
Couples are also choosing to reduce the size of their bridal party or do away with it altogether – with 25 or 50 guests at a wedding, having three bridesmaids and three groomsmen doesn’t make much sense right now.
Keeping track of postponements and date changes has proven a headache for many couples, who are now turning to wedding websites as an important way to keep guests up to date with changes. Wedding invitations are still important, but now often include a message about how the date is ‘subject to change’. The new etiquette also includes notes in the invitation politely flagging that the numbers might change and guests might have to be uninvited. Having the list of guest phone numbers at hand is now essential – often in a WhatsApp group – in order to send out last-minute notifications to guests to keep them up to date.
For couples who have just got engaged, it’s important to focus on the future rather than what’s happening right now. Dates for 2021 are fully booked with many dates in 2022 quickly filling up too, so it’s most likely that the wedding will be 18 months away or more. With the vaccine rollout, things will likely be very different by the time the wedding comes around so it’s reasonable to plan for a wedding with many guests and few restrictions on movement or social distancing.
While level 5 Covid restrictions are in place, there are still plenty of wedding planning tasks couples can get going on.
The most important is the ‘big discussion’ – what kind of wedding do you both want? Before planning anything else there needs to be agreement on whether it’s a big 300-person wedding down the country, or a small city restaurant wedding you both want.
Glossing over this part and ploughing on with plans is destined for disaster. It’s surprising how many couples have really different ideas and have
consultations and arranging meetings for when restrictions are lifted.
It’s essential that couples getting married this year set out contingency plans for their wedding, these should include working out tiers of guests – who is in the first 25, who makes it into 50 and who is on the guestlist for 100 guests? It’s also important to review contracts and find out what happens to deposits or payments in the case of postponing the wedding or changing the date.
Discussing the options with the venue will help make the plans easier to enact should the restrictions change or remain in place when the date comes around.
While 2018 saw the rise of the wedding hashtag, the latest must-have for every wedding in 2021 is a livestream.
Venues are increasingly offering options or working with couples to manage a Zoom call or YouTube broadcast to make sure all those who couldn’t make it due to travel restrictions, or vulnerability, can join in the fun.
But as you read on the preceding pages, it’s clear that couples who’ve been through the process feel that all the chopping and changing of plans came good in the end. Every couple speaks of how fantastic their day was.
The wedding day might have been different to the original plans, but it was worth it. Love is always worth it.
‘MANY VENUES ARE NOW DOING VIDEO-PHONE TOURS FOR A PERSONAL TOUCH’