Change of Plans

The ceremony shouldn't be that difficult to plan. The only necessities are an officiant and a marriage license. If you want to include optional things like flowers, you could find inexpensive ones at a local grocery store or florist. Assuming you'll need to rent chairs, I would just space them out and only put 4 or so in each row, depending on the sizes of the households that will be attending. A cake and punch "reception" afterwards sounds like a great idea, just remember to schedule it at a non-meal time so your guests don't go hungry.

I think it depends on your budget and how many guests will be attending. I personally would rather have open seating where guests can seat themselves, however, I think if you have <20 guests, assigned seats would work fine. With open seating, you'd need to rent extra chairs to leave between guests, so if budget is an issue, that might not work.

I agree, I don't think it's a good idea to ask people to stand. Especially in September when it will likely be warm.

Like pp mentioned the ceremony is the easy part to plan. find an officiant, get some chairs. for chairs i had to rent my own and it can be really cheap. i would also not do assigned seating but make everyone aware it is best to distance themselves.