No dance floors in Nj? Reception no more then 10 people??

I'm not in New Jersey but unfortunately that sounds about right. I am in Maryland and a few months ago there was a no dance floor rule as well. I do think that the numbers and restrictions will change in a couple of months after the holidays, at least I am hoping that it will!

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But only 10 guests allowed? This is news to me.

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I'm not sure about your governor, but Maryland's governor just recently put a small limit on guest count as well (either 10 or 25 people at a gathering), which I am 100% positive that he did it ONLY for the holidays! I'm sure that once the holidays are over, the guest count will go back to being a 25% capacity limit. Because of the surge of cases after thanksgiving, our governor said he wants to avoid that happening again for Christmas.

So I really think that it will change after the Holidays again.

I would say you can only have 10 people in total at your reception including yourselves, vendors and guests. I don't live in New Jersey, but my husband is from New Jersey and his family that lives there said the governor has been very strict.

I grew up in NJ and my mom and some friends are still there. It does sound like the # of people allowed at a wedding reception is equal to the state's limit on indoor gatherings, currently 10 people. If the gathering limit were to change between now and April, the reception limit would as well. If nothing were to change, it looks like you'd be limited to 10 people, no dance floor, and no food or drink after 10pm.

I do think its unlikely that these current restrictions will remain in effect all the way through the end of April, and suspect those numbers will be relaxed a bit in March or April as the weather warms, people move outside, and infection rates go down. We may also begin seeing vaccinations of the general public as soon as March or April (although its possible that won't happen until June). I think there will still be some restrictions in place, possibly including no dance floors, but larger gathering limits (like 50 or 100 people) seem more likely months from now. How many guests are you planning to have?

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100 or so. I am just surprised bc 2 of my coworkers have been to weddings here in NJ in the last 30 days and they've all been large and all had dance floors. That's why I am shocked to see this is the rule.

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Yea, just because the rules exist don't mean they are being enforced. But if there is a 10 person limit and you host an event that breaks that limit, you could get in trouble. I'm sure some venues are desperate enough to make money that they take their chances, which is why its good for you, as the bride, to be aware of the rules and not just rely on your vendors to be doing the right thing.

There are plenty of weddings and other gatherings that have happened throughout the pandemic that haven't stuck to the guidelines. Sometimes people get caught and get in trouble, but not always. Sometimes people try to skirt around the guidelines, like my mom was telling me there was a big wedding in the spring in NJ where they were spread out over multiple backyards and the hosts tried to say it was four 25 person gatherings instead of one 100 person gathering or something like that, even though everyone was mingling. And there are weddings where everyone has followed the restrictions and a bunch of people still get sick and spread Covid, and there are probably huge weddings where no one was taking any precautions at all and being super careless and somehow no one got sick. Its not really fair at all.

We had a small socially distanced elopement in May in New Hampshire and haven't been allowed to travel outside of New England most of the year while my husband's co-worker in Ohio had a 170 person wedding (dancing, no masks, no distancing) and then went on a honeymoon to California just this summer. Same company, different state, different rules. So the rules vary, some people are being more careful than others, and some couples are managing to escape a disaster at their wedding while others have weddings that turn into super spreader events that result in multiple hospitalizations and deaths of loved ones.

Also there have been huge spikes in infections since Halloween and Thanksgiving, so a lot of the most recent restrictions are in response to that and fairly new.

You may want to check in with your venue, as they will likely be able to explain exactly what the restrictions are, when they were put in place, and when they predict things might ease up based on Covid waves.

I agree on checking with your venue on this.
Doesn’t seem too abnormal to me. We weren’t allowed to have a ceremony or reception inside at our wedding 2 and a half weeks ago and couldn’t have a dance floor, even outside.
This was in CA though

Yes ma'am, it's true. Contact your venue for assistance

I live on Staten Island and I’ve been watching the restrictions they keep changing Before Thanksgiving it was 50 people at a gathering now with the big spike of Covid New York and New Jersey governor have been working together and limited to 10 until things start to settle down I think we should be good by then because I’m a healthcare worker and I just received my vaccine from Pfizer and mederna just came out so that’s just even more vaccines so hopefully by then people will get vaccinated and a lot of restrictions will be relaxed

The 10 person limit has been in place since before Thanksgiving, as we have been seeing quite a lot of cases in NJ.

Dancing is a high-contact/heavy breathing activity, which can spread disease faster.

If you've seen people violating these rules, they have been putting people at risk, and they and their vendors can be held liable.

Indoor gatherings are higher risk, because of the lack of ventilation.

I recommend following the Twitter accounts of the governor, NJ.com, and others to keep abreast of the rules. They tweet about them every day.

That said, we have a LOT of vaccine coming into the state, and the governor has a goal of 70% of the population vaccinated by June. April may be very different. I would not yet panic.

I had a wedding in November; and to my knowledge; my venue allowed me to have my reception and ceremony in one location under 25% capacity.


I don’t think this is being strictly followed. Venues are using their discretion. And officers are not enforcing this law due to their own beliefs of not destroying peoples scared day! I was literally stopped by police going into my venue. They stopped me to say congratulations and left us be.

I've been looking for venue's in the South Jersey/ Philadelphia area and noone has mentions the dance floor capacity to me.

View Quoted Comment Honestly I do not think many are following these guidelines because some feel like it’s alittle ridiculous.

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What did you do in lieu of dancing? I am in the same boat, getting married in May, so hopefully things ease up before then.

View Quoted Comment We had such a small group of people that we didn’t do anything but hang out and talk with everyone. It was very intimate and relaxed

I would call your venue. Ours is a restaurant and said they could have 150 max. All of the restrictions are different based on the room capacity and size limits (i.e. 25% or 150 - whichever is lower)

Definitely check with your venue. I had the same thoughts after reading those guidelines and immediately felt overwhelmed and sad about the 10 person limit. But i checked with my venue and that isn’t the case at all. Your venue will be able to confirm how many guests they will allow based on the size of the room.

Our date is 6/26/21 (moved from 9/12/20) and our venue just confirmed there’s no dance floor and tables will be moved and put over the dance floor to ensure no guests dance. My wedding is in NJ.