We're July 11th and we're proceeding as scheduled. It's not ideal but we are in a precarious situation. Also, I anticipate that July/August/September may be the time between the first and second wave of the virus. But our venue gave us 3 options:
1. Reschedule for next year and forfeit our deposit which is thousands of dollars.
2. Keep the date and for whatever reason if the hotel cannot host the wedding then we get our entire amount back if they cancel.
3. Reschedule for later this year at no cost but will most likely have to host the wedding on an off day like Friday or Sunday since they had to reschedule all of their March, April, and May events for the remainder of the year.
Their logic is since they anticipate to be open and operational in July, then there's no reason not to have the wedding as scheduled unless they are forced to close.
We decided to continue with the wedding as planned. Our venue is two stories which makes social distancing more feasible. We initially had 180 people invited but we know that will definitely not be the amount in attendance (At least we hope but 80% of our guest list is local). It may still work since the capacity of the venue is about 350 and if we're in phase 2 of reopening then that means the venue can be at 50% capacity. So our venue suggested we added more services to give the smaller amount of people who do come a better experience and meet the minimum for food and beverage. So we're keeping our date and we went from chicken to steak! The church where the ceremony is taking place is huge. We decided to have staggered seating in the pews with lots of space between couples and families. We'll probably just end up putting a program on the seats beforehand so everyone knows where they should sit.
Are you all keeping your July dates or postponing? How are you accommodating guests that may feel apprehensive about coming?
