Indoor Reception

My bff is having her wedding this upcoming Saturday and it’s indoor reception. Ugh but she’s gonna have 90 people. She’s basically offering masks and sanitizing wipes and spacing people out more at tables

I understand covid and all. But I’ve never been a fan of outdoor wedding receptions, where eating, dancing and mingling occurs outside for hours. We’re having 60 guests with both thr ceremony and reception indoors. So, with only 40 guests, I’d keep it indoors. It’s not much different than eating inside of a restaurant these days.

I also have anxiety about this. We’re also having 40 people, and our venue doesn’t have an outdoor option for dinner (they do for the ceremony at least).


We’re well below capacity, will be spacing tables out, seating household/family groups together, and providing masks and hand sanitizer for everyone. I’m really hoping everything will be ok.

Just had my wedding last weekend indoors with about 65 people. It went well because everything was super spaced out and people wore masks unless they were seated at their tables eating or drinking.

Hi J!

i'm having the same qualms as i am trying to plan something within the next few months. Does anyone know how it is working with the dancing situation with the reception? Is it pretty much just a sitdown dinner or lunch?

I'm so sorry you have to deal with this, I know I'd be nervous too. At this point I think that unless you're somewhere that cases are increasing rapidly, you can probably do this safely as long as you take precautions. Require masks when people aren't sitting AND eating or drinking, put hand sanitizer everywhere, and don't hug people.

View Quoted Comment It depends on where you live. In MA, there are no dance floors allowed (some venues are allowing first and parent dances) and drinks have to be served at tables, so it really would feel more like a luncheon (or maybe a charity gala but without a cocktail hour?). But a lot of other places have fewer restrictions.

View Quoted Comment If your venue can space everyone out then that’s great I will also be providing masks and sanitizers. We had planned on it being in a room that accommodates 100 so 40 people should give us some room to wiggle. However, I fear though that our state will still be at 25% capacity, in which case the room would be “too small” by the governor’s standards. I dunno.... praying this will improve by then. Thank you for your post.

I would just offer masks and have hand sanitizer where ever guest will be touching anything.

I attended one a few weeks ago with about 50 guests. They had sanitizer and everyone was spaced out. Masks were required in the buffet line. If someone is truly nervous, they just simply won't attend.