What will a post Coronavirus wedding look like?

A wedding is a simple ceremony, in which a couple, make legal and (often) religious vows in-front of the law, God, their family and friends. The whole point of these vows is to publicly declare, their love for, and to make a commitment to, each other. That’s it. Those of us who are involved in the wedding business often forget that everything else, the dress, suit, shoes, location, menu, wine, first dance, cake and yes even the photographs are all optional extras to do with celebrating the wedding.

In the light of the pandemic and its shocking impact on our world, is there anything better to celebrate than love? So this post is written to encourage you to press on with your wedding and the celebration of your love. Rather than view this as a time of restriction and limitation grab life with both hands, unleash your creativity and break free of some of shackles imposed by tradition and other peoples expectations. Take the chance to put on a celebration of your love in your own unique way.

So with a clean slate to make your mark on you may like to consider some of the following ideas.

Options for the ceremony & celebration of your wedding

I am increasingly convinced that the big slap-up traditional 100+ guest weddings are going to disappear for a couple of years. So if you are planning on getting married in the next two years you may want to consider these alternatives...

1) Minimonies 

A mini-ceremony that fills the legal minimal requirements ie two witnesses the bride and groom plus the priest/registrar. Some people dress up and get flowers, order a cake and book a photographer

Usually this takes place with the promise of a celebration on another date.

 

2) Micro Weddings

Usually fewer than 20 guests and was always planned that way, this is not about cutting down your numbers - this was always your intention just a small number of special friends and closest family to celebrate with you.

3) Multi-day weddings

If you can’t have all your friends and family to share your big day, why not simply turn one day into three? 

• A wedding rehearsal dinner/supper event invite a selection of people along so you can spend some time with them before the ceremony. 
• The ceremony happens on the morning of day two and you may have a social gathering for a selection of friends and family members and friends. This may be a sit down meal
• Then later on  you host afternoon tea or a picnic in the park for invited friends
• Then the following day you host a breakfast/brunch with a different set of people.

4) Sequel Weddings

Very similar to Multi-day weddings but rather than condensing all the action into three days you spread out events over many days, weeks or even the whole of your first year of marriage 

Sequel weddings are great for couples who have family in different locations, in the past this would be quite normal for couples where the groom is from the Uk and the bride is from another country. But the practice may well become more common place for couples from different parts of the UK. Often the option of having a 1st wedding anniversary celebration draws the wedding celebrations to an end. 

5) Wedding shifts

So take your original plan, work out your max number of guests you can have at each of your locations. Then draw up your guest list and be prepared to invite people to one particular aspect of your wedding and celebrations. That way people attend in shifts and you never go over your maximum permitted numbers so keeping everyone safe and sound

It sounds a bit odd - but in reality the bride and groom get to spend very little time with each of their guests at a big wedding, so from your perspective nothing much changes. 

Which ever of these options you pick there are always going to be some people missing out on some or all of your celebrations. So you do need to begin thinking about inviting some people to be on line guests. The key to getting this right is you need to make them feel special, a part of your big day and involved in helping you celebrate your love

So how about thinking of some of these options to look after your on line guests

1) Live stream key moments

This is a big one, even if social distancing guidelines change, elderly and the at-risk will probably want to stay at home and stay safe. Live streaming key parts of the day could be the answer, but you have to think DIGITAL FIRST and work at including your on-line guests in your celebrations so they don’t feel left out

As yet not many people will have offered this service so there is no set format or “usually we do…” its a clear field and you can make your mark on it. How do you want to look after your online guests? it’s up to you - and there are no pre conceived expectations.

2) Pre-Record your first dance

You may find that you have to delay/postpone or cancel your evening do - so why not do your first dance for the camera before the day but publish it as a live event on the day via youtube/ facebook

Why is this a great idea

When I think back over the last 50 weddings I’ve photographed I can only think of one occasion when the groom was actually looking forward to the first dance. For the other 49 it was “nightmare at the end of the day” in addition to this I can only think of a handful of these 50  weddings where evening guests have actually taken themselves to the edge of the dance floor, cameras at the ready, for the first dance. In all honesty, most first dances are a bit of a damp squib! 

So why not revamp the idea - look for a great location and get the dance filmed edited and put together as a “live event” to be broadcast during your wedding day celebrations. 

How much fun could you have with that? 

3) The big reveal

This is a bit of a challenge to our traditional views of the groom not seeing the dress until the start of the ceremony. In some countries it is normal for the groom to wait at a rendezvous point where he is photographed/filmed as he sees the bride in her dress for the first time! They then have a short photo session and go on to the ceremony together. 

If you’re a tradition breaker/trend setter why not do a big reveal on a different day to your wedding! Film the reveal, have a photo session, allow your photographer to edit and produce a showreel which will be launched at a live stream event just before your ceremony goes live?

3) Chat with your online guests

Rather than spending a massive amount of time in a Line-up, where everyone queues up to shake hand and give you a kiss and a squeeze (remember those?) why not use the time to have a chat with your on line guests? A simple zoom session would do the trick

4) online wedding day box

Rather than have your online guests feel like second class send them a small “wedding celebration” box to help them enjoy the day. Perhaps an outline “timetable of the day” (bit like an order of service) with all the key links they will need, send them a little bottle of something nice to help them celebrate, a slice of wedding cake, a play list, some sort of treat 

5) Push your wedding online

Given current uncertain future you need to keep your gusts informed on issue they may face on the day. Increasingly couples have been using  self made websites to push out information on their wedding celebrations These can be really helpful in letting people know your safety arrangements

https://www.gettingmarried.co.uk

This site can be a really useful way of providing all the appropriate links for your online guests to be able to catch up with your stay safe precautions and hints and tips (gentle reminders) of best practice for your guests

6) The "everyone in the picture"

One of the most requested pictures for a wedding is the everyone in “all guests” picture this concept can be adapted to allow for online guests as well - watch this space for a blog post on this