Covid-19 Precautions

I'm having an outdoor reception as well this October, inviting 150, but not sure how many will come. Everyone is local (within an hour of our venue) so we're thinking most will come. We're trudging along as well😅. We are having hand sanitizing gel and wipes for sure at all high touch places (i.e. the guest book table, dessert table, restrooms). We're also requiring masks be worn for the indoor ceremony, and encouraging them for the reception. We will also be providing regular (non-custom, non-cutesy) masks for anyone that wants them. We're also going to have brightly colored red and green rubber bands for people to wear on their wrists, if they choose. They will have coordinating signs explaing their meaning. For red- "I'm celebrating from 6ft away, cheers!" and for green "I'm ok with high fives and hugs!". We considered getting custom rubber bracelets made, but with all the other precautions we're adding already, we decided colored rubber bands are just as effective and they're $10 for 200 of them!😁

View Quoted Comment This is really smart and cost-efficient!!! Thank you so much, I appreciate you.

I was thinking of only having close family and wedding party at the ceremony and leaving a pew in between. My concern us the dancefloor thou. Idk how that's gonna go

I just had my wedding on Saturday. We had about 115 people come for the outdoor ceremony and about 100 stay for the indoor reception. Masks were available. We had a temperature check for guests as they entered (everyone was under the number ❤)
We made sure to have extra seats out for the ceremony so people could space themselves if needed. Also made sure the rows had a little more space between them. Hand sanitizer stations were set up. Our tables for dinner were spaced out with extra seats at the tables. Masks were required to go through the buffet and the food was served by hired staff.

We had a wonderful event!

View Quoted Comment I love these ideas! Especially the food precaution! Thanks so much

View Quoted Comment Oh and congratulations

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I am thinking of doing this as well. Where did you find them for $10 for 200? That is an awesome deal

View Quoted Comment Amazon! I just looked for red and green rubber bands

Mine is in September and we have about the same number of guests! We have enough tables that I'm able to pretty much keep households and families that see each other regularly sitting together and friends that have already been in contact with each other, but I also have a few tables that I deliberately kept low numbers of people at so they can spread out. We ordered hand sanitizers just to have, and I've put a blurb on the wedding website encouraging guests to get tested for Covid if possible and to bring a mask. I love the idea of requiring the mask to go through the buffet, though and I'm talking to my caterer this weekend so we may bring that up! We also plan to get tested before the wedding, just to be safe and make sure we aren't spreading anything. Definitely following this thread for more ideas!

View Quoted Comment Love that idea about the website!!! Thanks for all of this. And good luck!

I think communication is key - be sure and communicate through your website what you are doing to keep people safe so people don't have to question it. IE- spacing, masks, etc. I am also planning on sending an email about a month out to everyone telling them our plans, reminding them if they are sick or not comfortable we are OK with them not coming (we will miss them, but safety first) - and reminder to RSVP if they haven't or if they need to change their RSVP. Then, about a week out, I will send another email to all that have RSVP'd yes to remind them if they are sick, have been around sick or someone who tested positive to please stay home - again we will miss you but the safety of our guests comes first. For those that are not able to come I have created a private facebook group and will invite everyone who was invited to the wedding and will have someone from my family do a Facebook Live for the ceremony - cheap option because I didn't want to pay anything or have to worry about sending out a link, etc. and this way people can comment and I can go back and watch it. I wanted people to feel like they have an option to be included in the ceremony if they don't feel safe coming in person.

View Quoted Comment I am considering doing the same with Facebook live! And I’ve actually already added all these things to my wedding website and am blasting it all over social media. I definitely am driving home that you do NOT need to come if you feel sick in any way! I think these are all great points. Thank you so much!

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Hi Courtney! I'm considering doing a temperature check at the door, but a little worried as everyone on our list will be driving in from out of town. Did you have a plan in case someone was above the cutoff? Were most of your guests local or out-of-towners?

View Quoted Comment We were pretty half and half. We were very worried about someone being above but most had air bnbs near by so we planned to live stream to them if need be. And if it was someone super important we planned to keep them separated to see the ceremony and leave before cocktail hour starts.
Luckily we didn't have anyone above the temp. 🤷‍♀️
It made guests feel safer so it was a risk we were willing to make.

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Thanks for sharing! We're leaning towards doing them if only to make people feel safer and more at ease.

One thought I had was putting a little card on the guest tables with notes about wearing a mask when getting their food/on the dance floor and a reminder to stay 6 feet apart when possible. I’ve put all of this information on the website but I think having it at the table in front of them will be a good reminder as well. You can make the cards match your invitations or wedding colors too.

If it helps, here’s the card we are considering. I made it through Shutterfly so it would match our invitations. Not the final draft but a good start I think.