How to uninvite guests due to Covid

I literally just did that last night for the same reason. We set up an alternative. One of our groomsman has a portable screen and projector that he will set up in the reception venue. Our church will then livestream it for us so the guests can view. We will open the bar and serve light refreshments during. I posted it to our wedding website and then to Facebook (where we can easily connect with many guests). To be honest, the feedback so far has been extremely positive. People love that we had an alternative plan and also are grateful we chose their health over filling our church

View Quoted Comment We are considering the livestream as well. I love the idea of having it at the reception venue! Thank you for the response and I’m glad to hear the feedback has been positive!

View Quoted Comment Great idea!!

View Quoted Comment

This sounds like such a great idea!

OP, if this isn't an option for you, I would cut the ceremony guest list down to immediate family and bridal party only, that way it doesn't seem like you're picking and choosing who gets to attend. There are postcard templates on many stationary websites for this scenario, but you could also reach out to each household individually and let them know that due to social distancing guidelines, you will unfortunately only be able to have immediate family at the ceremony, but you hope they can still attend the reception.

If you're planning to send a letter or card or email to your guests, this website has pretty good templates for wording everything on how to uninvite guests due to COVID: https://theeverylastdetail.com/coronavirus-wedding-postponement-email-templates-to-send-to-guests/

View Quoted Comment Yes, that’s exactly what we did. We saw it as an all or nothing type situation. We do have 2 guests that are not in that category we invited to ceremony bc they are traveling great distance (like 14 hours by car) to be here. But we announced to our guests family/bridal party only.

Send thank you notes and explain the situation because of COVID. I’m sure everyone will be understanding with everything going on in the world right now.

View Quoted Comment I love this!

View Quoted Comment This is a great idea.

We had a smaller guest list of about 150 people, and only 75 households. I decided I didn’t want to spend any more money on paper stationary (plus we were running out of time) so between myself, my mom, and my mother in law we called everyone. I called most people and they helped with a few more distant relatives! I wanted to do it this way so I could quickly and easily answer any question they had, and it felt more personal. We only had immediate family, grandparents, and bridal party at our ceremony and small reception. We do have a larger reception planned for September but we aren’t sure if that’s going to happen or not yet!

We had to uninvite our guests also for both ceremony and reception. I posted an update on our wedding website and sent our website to those guests that can't come due to the state's restrictions. Our friends and extended family were very supportive and understanding. We are going to have a live stream of our ceremony as well as into our reception. This option has made myself and my fiancé feel better so our guests can be apart of our day. I hope this helps!