If you’re planning a wedding or celebration any time in the next few months, we’re sure you’ll be just as interested as we are in understanding how the government restrictions on social gatherings could alter your plans.
Over the past few weeks, the rules on social gatherings have been under a lot of scrutiny in the news. Many engaged couples are struggling to understand how they can navigate the choppy waters, as the Coronavirus figures waver up and down across the country, and the official advice changes on a weekly basis.
So, we wanted to give you a quick and straight forward run-down of the official government guidance for weddings and civil partnerships, as well as some top tips on how to make sure your post-lockdown wedding is just as beautiful and fabulous as you’ve always wanted, whilst making quite sure that you, your friends and family are as safe as houses.
The central point of the government guidance on weddings and celebrations post Coronavirus lockdown is that they must be socially distanced, in every way, as far as possible. From amongst the long and detailed advice, the key points can be summed up as follows:
- Guests should be masked.
- Guests should remain seated for as much time as possible to minimise physical interaction beyond their bubble.
- Guests should have easy access to hand sanitiser and hand-washing facilities throughout the entire celebration.
- Venues must ensure a Track & Trace system is in place and guests must consent to partaking in the system.
- Minimal food and drink to be consumed and any food & drink should be served at table to seated guests (no canapés, no buffet service, no sharing platters).
- No dance floors are permitted. Dancing can be enjoyed within social bubbles only.
- Entertainment is limited to what can be enjoyed from a safe seated distance.
- Third-party suppliers can be used at your venue’s discretion and all suppliers must adhere strictly to social distancing and hand hygiene systems put in place by the venue.
More information on all of these points (and more detail beyond them if needed) can be found here.
Strict (and a little scary) as some of these may sound, there is still every good reason to host a Covid-19 safe wedding celebration for your friends and family and memories to be made in spite of the challenging times. Go ahead and get in touch and let’s plan to spread a little happiness in the wake of lockdown.
If you’re looking for some creative ways to deal with the Coronavirus wedding regulations then why not embrace some of these top tips on hosting a post lockdown wedding celebration…
Top 3 Tips
Tip #1
Get creative with your masks
Sure, we didn’t all imagine that we would spend our wedding seeing our nearest and dearest’s eyes glimmering with happiness over the top of a face mask, but what’s to stop you providing some special, bespoke face masks to your guests?
Make sure your bridesmaids have matching masks and there’s got to be some pretty special bride and groom options out there too! Make sure you’ve got plenty of disposable masks and gloves ready to help out anyone who forgets there own, of course.
Tip #2
Boogie in your bubble
Government advice is to minimise the number of extra people attending your celebration, so ideally you would go without a musician or DJ (and certainly without a larger band). So, get creative with your Spotify playlists and instead of dancing around handbags, get your guests dancing around their tables so they can stick within their social bubbles but still get their groove on.
Tip #3
Keep it short and sweet
Since there’s no singing allowed and group interactions are to be minimised, keep your ceremony nice and brief with the shorter selection of vows from your registrar or a short but sweet home-made exchange of vows and limit the number of readings to one key choice delivered by someone within the bride and groom’s bubble.
We’ve got plenty more advice and tips for our couples and a host of ideas for how we can help you to through the celebration of a lifetime within the safe boundaries of the guidance. Get in touch to book a socially distanced viewing of the venue and to have a chat with one of our wedding coordinators about your event.
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Please note:
We hope it goes without saying that all venue staff, wedding guests and food, drinks or entertainment suppliers attending a wedding reception or celebration must be certain that they are not showing any symptoms of COVID-19. Anyone displaying symptoms should stay at home and get tested.
If anyone becomes unwell with symptoms of COVID-19 at a venue they should go home and be advised to follow the stay at home guidance. If they need clinical advice they should go online to NHS 111 (or call 111 if they don’t have internet access). In an emergency, call 999 if they are seriously ill or injured or their life is at risk. They should not visit the GP, pharmacy, urgent care centre or a hospital except for emergency access as above.
People who may have been in contact with a person who has become unwell should wash their hands thoroughly after the interaction, but they do not need to take any other specific action unless they develop symptoms themselves or are advised to do so by NHS Test and Trace. If they do develop symptoms they must follow the stay at home guidance.
