After I posted photos from Jared and my beautiful wedding weekend on Instagram, many of you expressed concern. You saw photos of 300 guests gathering and celebrating during a pandemic and commented things like, “Where are the masks?” and “Haven’t you heard of COVID-19?” and “What is wrong with you?” But I assure you, we took every precaution to ensure the safety of our guests and that we didn’t have to move our wedding date.
The fact is, the handful of our gorgeous photos that I shared don’t tell the whole story. For example, most of the wedding was outdoors, except for the ceremony and reception. Everyone wore masks during the entire event, except for the dinner, speeches, and dancing. And everyone was socially distanced, except for the transportation to and from the event, the event itself, and the after-party. Jared and I took the health and safety of our guests very seriously, and it was our first priority in planning our wedding and not moving it.
I know it might seem crazy to have a party right now, but honestly, the guest list was just family and friends, and co-workers, and random acquaintances we invited to fill the room, and we all know that that’s totally fine. Technically, all of our guests are in a quarantine pod with us, so there’s no need to worry. Some of you asked, “But what about the catering staff?” I appreciate your concern, but they were super clean about everything. Our wedding was probably no more dangerous than two people going out to eat. Just multiply that by a few hundred, and don’t even think about asking me to move my wedding date.
Many of you took particular issue with the photos of the hora, during which guests held hands and danced in a circle that closed in on itself. I can absolutely see why this would appear concerning at first glance, but what you didn’t see was that we handed out hand sanitizer and asked people not to cough. It was so important to me to include this tradition and that our anniversary would be 2020, no matter what.
A lot of you also had issues with the bubbles we handed out to our guests to blow at us when we exited the ceremony. I totally understand your worries since COVID is spread through air particles, but what you didn’t realize is that we asked people not to come if they were feeling sick, so everyone there was really healthy. We would never want to put our guests at risk, or have to find another date for our venue.
Another photo that seemed to upset a lot of you was of Jared and me blowing out the candles and stuffing each other’s mouths with wedding cake. You left comments like, “Gross” and “Are you crazy?” and “Who even has candles on a wedding cake?” But Jared and I were both tested the day before the wedding, so it really isn’t a big deal. We look forward to getting our results any day now, and to not having to plan a 2021 wedding with everyone else.
When it comes to planning a wedding, we all know that you can’t make everyone happy. Just like every bride, I’m used to hearing my share of complaints. From serving wine from a communal cup during the church service, to my grandparents inviting half their nursing home, to our 30-person joint bachelor/bachelorette trip to Las Vegas, it seems like everything we did made someone upset. But even with all the concerned comments, I know in my heart that we did everything right (outside of actually moving our wedding, which was NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN).
I hope that this clears up all of your concerns. As you can see, there truly isn’t any reason to worry about our special day exposing others to the virus, as there was virtually zero risk aside from the ones I’ve outlined here. Jared and I are so happy that we got to celebrate our wedding with those closest to us, and it meant even more to be able to do it during such a crazy year, because there was no way I was going to give up our deposits. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for pictures from our honeymoon in Walt Disney World!