Covid and Delta Variant

Our wedding is in January 2022 and we're moving forward with our plans. We don't see another shutdown happening where we're at, and all of our vendors added a COVID clause in their contracts, so we'd be losing a lot of we postponed/canceled. Most of our family and friends have gotten vaccinated, but I mean there are people that are vaccinated that are testing positive for this new variant.

The way I see it is that this is going to become a new flu of sorts. A new strain will pop up and they'll make a new vaccine to fight it.

We'll understand if some people don't feel comfortable coming to our wedding, but we won't postpone/cancel unless we HAVE to.

Same. Literally same date and same mindset. We have treatments and vaccines and more knowledge it's not the same as a year ago.

October 2 bride here as well! We're continuing with ours as planned, but putting all over our website that unvaccinated guests must wear their masks and distance themselves at all times "for the safety of the other guests in attendance", and hoping that wording will help people realize it's not because I'm mean...we, unfortunately, have a few immediate family members and friends who are immunocompromised. We are also providing masks at the entrance (and in the Out-of-Towner bags), and hand sanitizer. Our state is wide open as of now, and I don't see us shutting down or putting back any mandates any time soon. We're doing all we can to limit exposure in the weeks leading up to our wedding (we've already had our Bachelor/Bachelorette events, as well as our wedding shower), so now it's keep up protocols until the big day. Our friends/family know that if they don't feel comfortable joining us, they don't have to; we'll be sad they aren't there, but we can't do anything about COVID/the variants.

We're not in the same situation, but I definitely understand the feeling. My reception is in 3 days after being rescheduled from August 2020. When we were figuring out what to do last year and when it became clear that we were really going to be able to have the party this time, I was/am very concerned about the actual health situation and not as much about what's technically allowed. I'm more nervous now than I was a few weeks/months ago because of the variants.

Find out how your travelling relatives feel about flying now. After a year and a half of this, they probably have a decent understanding of their acceptance of the risk, even if they don't know what October will bring. If they're open to coming, believe that they would try to be there.

What we ended up doing last year might be somewhat useful to you. (If you click on my profile you can find pictures- it was a lot nicer than I'm making it sound.)

We had a miniwedding with 15 people, immediate family only, at my parents house. It was outside, masked, and socially distanced (2-3 people/1 household per table) as much as possible. We didn't hug anyone.

You could do something similar either with only your closest family members/friends or with your full guest list. You can have a real venue if you want to, and if you're outside you don't really have to mask. You can seat people carefully depending on their risk tolerance/behaviors/susceptibility to complications. You can ask your social bridal party members to test before they come and to attend virtually if they test positive.

Try to think about how sad you would feel about not having any/most of your guests with you on that day or when thinking about it later on. Include anyone you think you'd really miss, and figure out what you can do to include those people without making yourself so anxious that you can't enjoy it.