Planning a COVID Wedding
There’s no denying that the past year and a half has been extremely difficult for everyone due to COVID. Couples have had to navigate continually changing restrictions while wanting to move their relationships forward. They have been planning engagements and weddings for years and now the pandemic has made everything come to a halt.
So, what are these couples doing?
They’re getting engaged, planning weddings and getting married, anyway! Lots of people would think that it would be impossible to try and celebrate their love when they are unable to be surrounded by their friends and family. But there is something extremely romantic about pledging your love for each other with only your closest loved ones.
Jewels and Matthew were one of these couples planning a wedding during the pandemic. They were kind enough to share some of the challenges they faced due to COVID.
Did you have to make huge changes to what you had planned?
The couple months leading up to our wedding were stressful because we were busy planning a wedding, remodeling our house and moving. It didn’t leave us with much time to think about the changing restrictions. We just tried to make the best of the situation.
The biggest change we had to make was downsizing the guest list. We were supposed to have 180 guests and downsized to 28 guests. It was really hard for us as we have large families and friends from different stages our of lives, but we didn't want to postpone. Most of our friends and family were understanding. We ended up having our parents, siblings, grandparents and wedding party.
Did you already have everything booked and then have to cancel? Were the vendors accommodating with rescheduling?
Our vendors were extremely accommodating; I couldn't have asked for better service. From helping us come up with COVID friendly solutions, giving date alternatives and even waiving the deposit fee. We only had issues with one vendor, they wouldn't refund our money due to COVID restrictions, but the restrictions were lifted and it all worked out in the end.
We did end up having to cancel our bachelor and bachelorette parties that we had originally planned to have in New Orleans. This was really disappointing. Our accommodations were already booked and they would not give us a refund. Our friends were amazing and so creative, somehow, they managed to throw us small parties in Saskatoon.
How did you adapt to the ever-changing restrictions?
We just had to take the restrictions as they came. We never changed our plans until we knew that the restrictions were sticking around, we didn't have the time or emotional capacity to jump at every new restriction. We wanted to ensure the restrictions weren’t going to be lifted before the wedding.
We must have had 8 guest lists in total. Since the COVID gathering numbers were always changing we wanted to ensure we had a plan, just in case. We had lists that consisted of 6, 9, 12, 20, 25, 28, 90, and 180 guests.
Was there anything good that came from having your wedding during COVID?
We really enjoyed our smaller wedding even though we had never pictured a small wedding for ourselves. We always pictured a large celebration with family and friends eating, drinking and dancing. However, we loved the small intimate wedding we had. We were able to put more money into having the décor and flowers we wanted. The day also felt like it was about us, we weren’t overwhelmed trying to talk to all of our guests. Having fewer guests allowed us more freedom, we were able to take longer for pictures. Also, we were able to sneak away later in the evening for some sunset pictures, that was probably one of my favorite parts of the day.
Are you happy you went ahead with your wedding and didn't postpone it?
We were able to stream the day on Facebook Live for our friends and family that we were unable to invite. This allowed them to feel like they were a part of the day which was great. We are extremely happy we went ahead with our wedding. We had been together for 5 years by the time we got married so we didn’t want to wait another year to get married. We couldn’t be happier!
We couldn’t be happier to see Jewels and Matthew celebrate their love for one another despite the many obstacles of the past year.
XOXO In Bloom
