Covid help!

It may be a little too soon to call. For safety/health reasons, it may be wise to opt for the 50 guests option.

I would certainly expect masks and social distancing to be required in the northeast in September.

That said, it's also likely too early to make a decision on this. Is there a way you can at least shadow-plan the backyard wedding jic? Price things out, figure out the logistics... and if you have to go with that, you're halfway done, and if you don't, you can just drop it.

Does your venue have a minimum? Or a cancellation fee? It might be more cost-effective (and way less work) to keep your venue for 50 guests.

View Quoted Comment Our venue doesn’t have a minimum. I’m bringing everything in so it would pretty much be the same amount of work although I have everything set up for the venue already vs backyard

How does your venue price? Ours is per person, for example, so cutting the guest list cuts our fees and won't really change anything, so I would stick with the venue. But, I know it's not the case for everyone.

View Quoted Comment Hi, the venue is 120 max capacity but I have to bring everything in. Venue is just one price for the rental of it for the day

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That's definitely a harder situation then. I would price out the backyard version and see what the differences are and decide when you get closer. Would you do another reception later on? If so, you could do backyard now and venue later for a reception?

View Quoted Comment That’s a good idea. If I did a backyard thing now I might just have a cookout at a later date but prob not an actual reception.

I like the backyard idea the only thing is that tents can be expensive (well here in NY at least) and then you need to worry about restrooms or rent porter potties, tables,chairs, etc.

Price it out. It will probably be close to same thing and the convenience of the backyard might help your stress level. Hope you will have help decorating and finding the best bargains for things.

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That's totally fair. I think I'd price it out and see if it's worth doing the extra work to switch to the backyard plan. Like Naikesha said, it can be really expensive to do a tent set up depending on where you live.

View Quoted Comment Very true! I will try pricing things out. It’s just tough to decide at this point bc if I don’t know how many people are going to be allowed. Wedding planning right now sucks lol thanks for you’re help!

Hi Jocelyn


Before comparing options, have you looked at the contract with your venue to see the consequences of reducing guests numbers? Particular attention on deposits and deadlines.
Wishing you an incredible dayAudrey

Good afternoon,


I’m running into the same situation org getting married 9/5/2020. We want to change our date to next year and just have a small close family intimate wedding in our backyard this year. Our venue is giving us a really hard time and is stating they will only give us a 5 week notice. Very stressful as we have a guest list of 250 and we are worried for the health and safety of everyone. I also heard you may have to cut your wedding guest list down which will be very difficult to do and chose. I wish our venue would be more understanding specially with all the money and effort that goes into it all. 5 weeks is not e Pugh time to even replan which they will have no spots for us till 2022 if we have to wait that long and being proactive to change our date. Is anyone else running into this issue as well?

View Quoted Comment Luckily we do not have a minimum and we will not be penalized if we have a smaller guest count.

View Quoted Comment Amazing!


I wonder then if there is an advantage of hiring a tent (I read above comments about costs and I concur with them). You feel you are going to lose a bunch of money. On what items? I’m trying to see what is your main concern x

My wedding is in October and I’m going to try to keep the venue no matter what! My guest list is 130 and I’m hoping we only have to drop down to 100 guests!!!

We are using our venue money for a backyard wedding. This whole covid thing has busted everyone. Some business are starting back up and have back orders . My step dad cant get off for our wedding in Oct. because he has so many back orders for his business. They live in FL. So some people might not be able to make it to the wedding so a backyard wedding might be in the works. Plus my friend got married in her backyard in May due to her venue and cater went out of business because of COVID. Also so many people are on a smaller budget now so traveling might be hard on them. I am buying my tents for the wedding and then selling them after to an event company.