Covid19 and delta variant

I sent out 200 invitations thinking everything would be fine and have 118 confirmed guests so far! I got 8 more yeses over the weekend so I guess people are so far undeterred. I'm going to contact them again in mid Sept to check that they still want to come. All my guests are vaccinated so hopefully it will be safe! I talked to the owner of my venue and she said she has had several weddings of 150 people in the last 2 months and everything has been fine. She keeps telling me that Riverside county (in CA) is business friendly and that she doesn't see us having personnel limits -fingers crossed!

October 17th bride here. I was just starting to think that we wouldn't need hand sanitizers and masks but I see now that we'll probably still have them. We're in Georgia and honestly, even if numbers do get worse, I know our governor won't shut us down again. We just sent out invites - 160 - and we already know some people will decline, which we're okay with. We've asked that everyone either be vaccinated or at least take a Covid test 3 days prior so we'll see how that will work out too. Our venue holds 400 comfortably so I think we'll have enough room to kinda social distance. More than likely we're going to still go ahead with everything but if I think if I have to dis-invite guests, I will.

10/16/2021, Central Coast, CA here! I am totally stressing over all of this! I have bridesmaids who refuse to get vaccinated, so the thought of requiring vaccines makes me sick to my stomach, but I also know that it's the safer way to have our day. One of my bridesmaids told me last night she's fine not participating if we choose to require it, which is not what I want either. I don't know if it's better to postpone, which we've now started discussing. Any restrictions will immediately alienate a good handful of guests right off the bat. I was feeling so hopeful in June, and now everything has changed so quickly.

I'm working through all of that. I can't even imagine the guilt I would feel if it became a super spreader event. Thankfully we are outside for the entire thing, but I just don't know the right answer. I'm leaning toward requiring it, but my need to please certain people is really struggling with that! Either way, we're getting married and I know I need to be more concerned with us and what we want for our day than what other people feel about it. I wish this didn't have to be part of the planning process!!

I hope your day is beautiful!!! I know we're going to enjoy all of it no matter what!

I just had a wedding with 160 people (kids also) and its been 16 days and not one person caught covid at my wedding. Also, no one wore a mask because most of my guest list is vaccinated. At this point, people chose to be there and take the risk of getting covid.

Thanks for sharing!! Love hearing when people have happy, healthy weddings!

This is what I ended up putting on our website for now:

"Now that the Delta variant has become a larger issue, we want to make sure to address all of your concerns. While we highly encourage you to be vaccinated if you can, we understand that there are guests who many choose not to, or for other reasons are unable to receive the vaccine at this time. In lieu of that, testing is easier than ever to obtain and we would encourage any unvaccinated folks to be tested within 72 hours before our big day. We have a honeymoon to go on, and we would hate to miss it!

We are so happy we planned our wedding at a venue that is entirely outside! This means you will never be in an enclosed space, and can choose to maintain social distancing if you choose. We will also be mindful as we make seating charts, so that people are seated together from the same households/families/friend groups. Please do not hesitate to communicate any of your concerns with us. We want to see all of you there, but we do understand if anyone is uncomfortable and chooses not to attend."

We'll see what happens and if we need to add more restrictions, but our county so far doesn't have mask mandates for outdoor events. Crossing my fingers...

Completely agree. I've had married people (who had their big wedding) say things like "oh, all you need is love! you don't need a wedding!". I was a Sept 2020 bride, now a Sept 2021 bride and at this point all I want is to put on the dress, say vows in front of family and dance with my little niece. I'm so over the whole planning and 100% felt like I was robbed of a real engagement & wedding experience.

Starting to worry a little...10/23/21 in NJ. Besides working in healthcare, I also work as a musician and we are starting to have gigs- including outdoor weddings- cancelled/postponed again, even outside. Plus restrictions happening in Philly indoors.

There are a handful of people invited (unfortunately including some of my fiance's family) who refuse to get vaccinated. We aren't sure how we are going to handle this other than so far encouraging everyone gently to get vaccinated. I guess mask up inside is looking possible/probable.

We purposely chose a venue with indoor and outdoor facilities when we got engaged late Feb. Capacity is 200, we invited 125, 44 have said yes, but then like another 60 have told me in passing they are planning on it but not officially via the RSVP, including immediate family members (many of these have kids, and we don't know if they are bringing or not). I know to be patient and everything can change these days, but still ugh. Also incredibly (we are both huge introverts) we have people ASKING to be invited.

The venue luckily has one huge covered patio we are renting with a bunch of picnic tables. If we had to there is a 2nd larger pavillion we could switch to for the same price, tho it could be cold. Indoors there are TONS of easy to open windows, probably 15 or so to get a cross breeze on 3 sides, as well as double doors on each side. I think we will try to do inside still if we can/feel ok with it and pop windows open if it gets bad.

We are DIY food so a concern for me is the buffet. Things were looking better and I put it out of mind but starting to worry if it's a consideration again. I really, really don't want to hire extra staff (we have a DOC/kitchen 2 person team who will heat up and put things out as they run out, plus clean end of night). We really don't have it in the budget and it took months to find this team (who seems AWESOME)