Today I am here to share my COVID wedding experience as part of our Tuesday Tips series. Much like everyone else in the world right now, COVID-19 drastically affected us. In our case, it was with our wedding day [and we feel fortunate that it was only that]. Although it seems somewhat trivial in the grand scheme of everything going on, it still was hard, disappointing and sometimes lonely during the planning process. Not getting the "full experience" as a bride can be heartbreaking, especially after assisting and watching hundreds of clients experience it. No honeymoon, no bachelorette party, no guarantee you can even have your wedding, no rehearsal dinner, fewer bridesmaids due to travel restriction, lesser guest count, closed venue that forces you to completely re-plan and re-design your big day, the fear of it all, etc. With that being said, our day was absolutely perfect and I wanted to share those details and how we designed our big day to still feel like a wedding while also being safe.

We made a decision together to have a small, intimate ceremony in my parents backyard and then save the big party and celebration for later on down the road. It was important to us to keep the integrity of our day and marriage, while also still getting the whole experience, honoring the vendors and contracts we had and including ALL of our family and friends. We limited it to our wedding party and immediate family, which ended up being around 45 people.

A lot of our clients have stressed that starting over and trying to figure out what to do and what to save for later is overwhelming. Everyone is different but we decided to keep it more simple to be safe. We had our ceremony and then a very casual mix and mingle dinner. No dances, no formal cake cutting, no toasts and no tosses, etc. We wanted to save those experiences for all of our guests. Here are some tips to ensure your big day is special and safe...

Getting Ready.

Still get ready with your crew! We still had hair and makeup [Cali Stott Artistry] come to get us all dolled up. They were phenomenal and made us feel safe; they wore masks, social distanced from those who were not getting services and even brought an extra girl just for additional sanitizing. I still gave the girls their bridesmaid robes and gifts, we still laughed all morning and drank mimosas and we still grubbed on a chick-fil-a platter! The girls wore their bridesmaid dresses with me and the guys wore their suits! We also decided to still have bouquets for the girls and boutonnieres for the guys. Unfortunately, three of my bridesmaids were unable to come due to COVID travel restrictions. To ensure that they were still a part of our big day and included, I mailed their gifts and robes to them early with a personal note so they could "get ready" with us. They sent pictures of them in their dresses and we FaceTimed on the wedding day.

Photos + Small Details.

Still have your photographer come to photograph those special moments of your day and those details that you have put so much thought and work into. We decided to keep the decor simple but did splurge on certain things; like the ceremony drape/florals + farm tables. We did simple floating candles and votives on the table and then repurposed our bridesmaid bouquets after the ceremony to add the flower/color pop. To still have some special details, I hand-made acrylic name cards and signs to be placed around. We also ordered custom hard-plastic cups with our hashtag and date on them.

Traditions.

Still do your traditional photos. We decided that we wanted to do a first look to get rid of any potential wedding-day jitters and go into the day together and relaxed. I also did a first look with my father and we ensured special moments with mothers were included.

Keep the Integrity of Your Ceremony.

We still had our formal ceremony... in fact, we had two! We had decided a while back that we wanted Robbie's father, Jack, to "officiate" our wedding. Though his father is not ordained so we had the very lovely Rev. Rebecca Nagy come to "officially" marry us with just our parents before the big ceremony. It was so special because Jack was able to be a part of that ceremony, while also able to beautifully give the next ceremony for family and friends.

For the big ceremony, we decided to have our amazing Videographer, J. Mitchell Productions, live stream it so that ALL of our guests could watch and be a part of it. Our family and friends LOVED this and really appreciated that we made the effort to include them. There were over 100 viewers during our ceremony and so many people sent us photos of them watching and sweet texts.

We also decided to keep our original plan to have the talented Wescottage Music play for our prelude and ceremony. Although we did not have dancing and decided to save our DJ for the reception later on down the road, we did still want that to be apart of the ceremony and it made it truly feel like an actual wedding. I also had our amazing lead coordinator, Lydia, come to assist with set up and the processional so I could attempt to be in "bride-mode." She took over vendor and wedding party coordination and made the day smooth and relaxing.

Dinner.

We had a very casual dinner with True Crafted Pizza and their Big Red food truck! We made a playlist on Spotify for background music and used Alexa to play it. The only formalities we decided to have were a welcome and toast from my father [which was recorded by our videographer to show at the reception later], a Thank You from Robbie and I and then Robbie's father put together a beautiful video montage for us [which brought everyone to tears]. Other than that, everyone mingled, laughed, ate, drank and relaxed. It was was so laid back and fun!

Safety.

We took many safety precautions to ensure that our guests felt comfortable while there. Here are a couple ways to make it safer...

1. We provided a "Sanitation Station" with gloves, masks and personal hand sanitizers as guests walked in.

2. We ensure that all events were outside, in the open-air [with the exception of the restrooms, which had Lysol spray, wipes and hand sanitizer].

3. We spaced out the ceremony chairs to feel more separated.

4. We placed the dinner tables 6ft apart and did assigned seating so that guest who lived together/knew each other closely sat together.

5. We used disposable tableware. We purchased nice palm-leaf plates and custom hard-plastic cups for beverages.

6. We hired a bartender to serve guests so that they weren't touching the same tap or wine bottles and only served beer and wine to keep it simple.

7. True Crafted Pizza served guests as well, buffet style, so that no one was touching the same utensils. They wore masks and gloves and we did a stationed appetizer area, rather than passed.

8. We did not have any dancing or close group activities. We created "break-away" areas for guests to separate into smaller groups if they wanted. We had a fire pit area with chairs and a lounge area on the grass. Some guests even sat down by the lake at the ceremony site for portions of the night.

In our personal experience, the day was perfect. We were blessed with beautiful weather but we also just enjoyed how relaxing, low-key and special the day had become. It was a quality day and although we were sad and disappointed to not be able to celebrate with everyone in person, now we get to look forward to the big reception later on down the road [I mean, who wouldn't want two parties?!].

Thank you to all of our amazing vendors for making it such a beautiful and relaxing day!

PHOTOGRAPHY: Taylor Ann Photography

VIDEOGRAPHY: J. Mitchell Productions

RENTALS/FLORALS: Ribald Events

STATIONARY: Olive Paper

BEAUTY: Cali Stott Artistry

STRINGS: Wescottage Music

CATERING: True Crafted Pizza

OFFICIANT: Rev. Rebecca Nagy

GOWN: Blue Bird Bridal