Is the wedding still on? Although many couples have postponed their weddings to next year or beyond, many marriages are continuing to happen with adjustments made to allow for social distancing and following local COVID guidelines.
Even though your wedding day may look quite different than you imagined, there are still ways to have a special celebration of your marriage with close friends and family. If you are considering hosting a small intimate wedding, consider these tips to set your event up for success!
Get creative with a backyard wedding
With venue cancellations and uncertainty, a lot of couples are taking matters into their own hands and backyard weddings are on the rise. A backyard wedding can be incredibly intimate and sweet and ensures that you will have control over the environment for you and your guests. It’s also an opportunity to get creative and incorporate fun things that you couldn’t have at a traditional wedding.
Our client Courtney and Erik opted for an adorable front porch wedding, and it couldn’t have turned out cuter! A bonus to having their wedding at home is that their pup was able to join in on the festivities. They had already had their pets illustrated on our custom napkins to include in their wedding, so their fur babies got to be even more involved in the special day!
Photos by Erin Stubblefield Photo
Set expectations in advance with guests
Over communicating is often the key to setting expectations. Make sure your guests know your policies on mask wearing, seating arrangements, and other practices to encourage social distancing before the wedding. Reinforce these practices the day-of with signage and staff to help direct your guests where they are supposed to go.
Stream the ceremony online
The hardest part about socially distanced weddings are all of the friends and family who aren’t able to attend in person. Make them feel part of the celebration by streaming the ceremony live so that they can celebrate with you from a distance!
Have Small Seating Arrangements
Changing up your seating arrangements to have smaller spaced out tables so that guests can sit only with their party is a great way to maintain social distancing. Small groups of tables can be set up in pods so that people at different tables can still talk to one another, while maintaining 6 feet of distance.
Encourage Mask Wearing and Sanitizing
In order for guests to follow your guidelines, it’s important to make it easy for them. Providing masks for your guests who may have forgotten them will make it easy for everyone to wear one. You can also set up sanitizing stations throughout the wedding area plus cute signage will reinforce proper hygiene and social distancing! We love this cute signage on Etsy for an "elegant" sanitizing station.
Do you have other tips for hosting a successful social distanced wedding? Share them with us below!