July wedding- Masks not wanted!

Yes it is your wedding, but sorry, no, it is not your right to tell people they can not wear a mask to your wedding. Mask wearing, if not required, is a personal choice and right. COVID is a public health and safety issue and to make your guests choose between protecting themselves and loved ones or attending your wedding is not cool at all. Like someone said here before, if you are going to have a wedding in a pandemic then get okay and on board with mask wearing because that is the reality as much as we want to wish it away. It is even said that mask wearing will not go away even when covid is under control, that it will become more and more normalized to see people with masks and wear them. But if you do decide to go this route anyway, then it is your responsibility to make everyone aware of your plans to not wear masks nor encourage them. This includes the venue and every vendor. Most, if not all, are requiring mask wearing to do weddings and events. It is you and your fh responsibility to be transparent about everything health and safety wise that will take place at your wedding. The same way my fiancé and I are making our guests aware of our safety measures and required mask wearing.

View Quoted Comment Yes! This!
None of us want to wear masks or have masks at our wedding. But it is out of our control and the health and safety of our loved ones is far greater than the disdain for masks. No question.

My only input is this:

"... my FH and I are not willing to have our day celebrated by looking at people wearing masks."

Then you should not get married during a pandemic.

I do not like masks. And I believe most people completely misunderstand how they work to reduce transmission (they do not protect the wearer from others, only the reverse). I also find it very frustrating as a hard-of-hearing individual to be unable to read lips, which I need to be able to understand others.

However, it is a pandemic. People are going to wear them. The "no children" analogy does not work here - a better analogy would be asking that no guests wear glasses because they will reflect flash and make your pictures ugly. That would obviously be silly and rude. As would be asking guests not to wear masks.

If you truly must, you could go as far as to say "masks are not required" or "masks will only be required in public areas" and hope your guests are equally as opposed to wearing masks as you are.

I would call up each of your ~25 loved ones you plan to invite and tell them they can only come if they promise not to wear a mask. This will surely save you a lot of money on invitations, place settings, food, etc.

Also, please call all of your vendors now and let them know that they will be at risk of catching COVID from you and your guests the entire night. It's always better to know these things ahead of time.

I think the right to have your wedding the way YOU want it, is fine, but not at the risk of health for others.

If my friend was still having her wedding, then I would've worn the mask even though not a lot of guests would.

I mean, honestly, if you don't want to wear masks, I get that. I HATE wearing a mask, but just because I don't want to wear a mask doesn't give me the right to infect other people.

I think you could elope though and get married married, and then maybe when people stop wearing masks again you could renew your vows and have the wedding you have always wanted.

Requiring that people don’t wear masks?! In a pandemic? Are you still social distancing? Or providing hand sanitizer? I would never tell anyone to not wear a mask. Maybe you can say that masks are not mandatory. Either way you may offend people and that 25 guest count will be even lower lol

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This is such a great point!

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I agree, and that is saying A LOT. I would not attend if I was told to not wear a mask. The whole verbage of "it is MY DAY" is very revealing. We are in a pandemic and it ain't going anywhere soon, sadly. If I received an invite that said I could not wear a mask I would decline.

I never understand people who want to get married in this pandemic and act like it doesn’t exist. Some day you’ll look back on your wedding photos of an unmasked event and it will act as a time capsule reflecting your selfishness.

I share your sentiment about not wanting masks at my wedding which is one reason I chose to postpone from last October to this upcoming October. I was hopeful that COVID would be a distance memory by then but to my surprise that is completely not the case. I have accepted the fact that some people will wear masks or shields. I don’t want my wedding party in them during the ceremony. That’s all I ask. I’ve even given them the opportunity to back out if needed.


Since you want a ceremony and reception with even a small crowd of 40 you have to accept that masks will likely be there. Consider providing custom masks so at least they aren’t the tacky blue ones. At this point you have to let people do what’s comfortable for them. Mandating no masks says you care more about what people look like than their health.
You could always get married in a private ceremony and have a bigger reception later.
As far as timing I would base your guest count on whatever the mandate is at that time. Otherwise you make more work and stress for yourself. Let people know due to restrictions you have to cut your guest count. If it’s lifted later then you can add local people that likely won’t have to make many arrangements to attend. If 2020 taught us nothing else it taught us to be flexible. Unfortunately social gatherings won’t look the same going forward including weddings.
Good Luck!!!

Holy cow. You need to rethink your priorities.

I get not wanting to mandate masks, but requiring that guests NOT wear masks isn't fair. You should make clear won't be wearing or requiring masks at your event, which should deter some guests. But overall it's completely inappropriate to tell any guests how they should manage their own health.


If you dont mandate masks, they'll come off as the night goes along for most people. This has been my experience with every covid wedding.
But why does it matter to you? Just don't have these people in your pictures.

View Quoted Comment Don't agree with this at all. Life goes on, even during a pandemic. Let people take their own risks and have the weddings they want.

I'm in a bit of shock at this post. I feel like many other people on this post. It is not okay to say you can't come to my wedding if you wear a mask. I'm all for doing what you want at your wedding but that doesn't apply here. If you told me that I would not attend your wedding and probably cut ties. If you do this, you're gonna burn bridges.

I dont know if this idea has been said or not, but you could always compromise and not have masks in pictures. Tell guests that you will be requesting that during posed photos guests briefly remove masks. That doesnt solve much for candid shota but as another poster mentioned you could ask your photographer to try and avoid angles showing masks.
Also im not sure if your budget allows but you could purchase cloth masks in black and white and give them to guests who feel uncomfortable without a mask so that everything looks more fashoinable and you dont have any less appealing disposable masks in pictures or the crowd.
Just some minor thoughts to consider.

Is this a joke? I refuse to believe that it's been almost a year of c*vid and this is still how some people are acting. I get it. I'm sick of it too. But it's attitudes like this that are prolonging everyone's mutual suffering. Not to mention you cannot force someone not to wear a mask, nor should you try to. I think this is a good litmus test: If you find yourself typing the phrase "but this is MY wedding and it would make ME uncomfortable", then you need to take a step back and realign your priorities. If you absolutely don't want masks at a wedding, then postpone your wedding to 2031. Don't come to WW for validation from strangers on the internet that your idea is a good one, because it is objectively a bad one.

I don’t think anyone’s ideal wedding involves people wearing masks. But this is life right now. Telling people they cannot wear masks because it’s your day and you don’t want it, is selfish and shows a huge lack of empathy and caring for your guests.

I understand your concern, but the fact you want to uninvite people over their concern of their own health during a global pandemic is extremely selfish. People I know have no immune system, take care of older people, work in places where they can't afford to get sick, etc. I'm uncomfortable with the idea of taking of a mask in a public setting with people I don't know since my boyfriend's family is immunocompromised. Honestly, if I got uninvited for that, I probably wouldn't talk to you ever again so prepare to be cut out of other peoples' lives. This is why there is still a pandemic going on...

You simply can not request for people to not wear mask.

I am giving people at my wedding the option but letting them know that the bridal party and myself/FH are not going to wear them so if they are uncomfortable, then they need to wear one for the day.

If you are making a guest list based on who will not wear a mask, doesn't that seem selfish to the people who would want to come celebrate your love? Sounds more like you should elope

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It should be left up to the attendees of the wedding on whether they are comfortable wearing a mark or not. It is no one elses choice but the person behind the mask and the thought of not inviting people purely based on a mask.... Do you really care about the people coming to your wedding or just the pictures??? Its selfish to require no mask. You give people the option and let everyone know you will not be wearing a mask and leave it to the guest on whether to decline or accept the invite but if someone wants to come and doesn't get to over a mask... you are selfish