“Minimony”

You could rent out a private room at a restaurant. Dinner, drinks, cake, mingling.

Omg, yes Ohio mandates are way too strict.
No, we are not doing anything to make me feel special. Just exchanging vows with only parents present, outside, then do outsude dining at a restaurant if that's still an option.

For our minimony we rented out a ballroom at a hotel and my family cooked for everyone (it was about 35 guests). We did the ceremony and ate dinner and talked afterwards. We had music playing for everyone and we took pictures just like at a normal wedding. We also took a BUNCH of shots lol. It was from 5:30-9PM. We had an amazing time. We originally were supposed to play the shoe game but once we started drinking that went out the window lol

Been seeing that a lot lately. It’s perfectly fine to do turn vow renewal next year. Can even rename it “Celebration of Marriage - The Sequel!”
You can play some games. The shoe game, cards, maybe some corn hole?

Hello Wedding Day Twin - I was in the EXACT same spot a few months ago. My fiance and I were charging ahead with planning a 250 person destination wedding in New Orleans. However, as the city was slow to recover and reopen, we made the difficult decision to revamp our wedding altogether (and given the current state of things, I'm so glad we did!). We started planning our Plan B wedding, changed the location from New Orleans to Destin, Florida (which is close to my hometown) and invited 25 people (immediate families, grandparents and aunts and uncles). It was the best decision I made. I felt so relieved and less stressed when that decision was made. We also hired a vendor specifically for livestreaming for those who will not be present. Although we're having a smaller wedding, we are still having a WEDDING! We plan to celebrate and are not cheating ourselves from the experience simply because our plans changed. We are getting married at a resort where the ceremony will be held on a terrace overlooking the beach. We'll have a cocktail hour while we take pictures, and we'll be showing a slide show of my fiance and I from babies to now. At the dinner, we will have some music playing and incorporate some traditional elements like a first dance and cake cutting. We won't throw a bouquet (all of the ladies who will be in attendance are married) or the garter (the only single men are our 5 and 13 year old nephews). LOL! We also plan to play the shoe game after dinner. We're debating about a big party next year, but it's definitely doable if that's what your heart desires. Outside of COVID, I would have never considered a smaller wedding, but our Plan B wedding has been a blessing in disguise and the rainbow after the storm.

View Quoted Comment This made me feel better today. Thank you for taking the time to reply!

View Quoted Comment

You're welcome!

We had a similar situation, where due to COVID we had just a small ceremony and reception (about 30 people total). We really embraced the "family dinner"/intimate vibe. Even though we were doing social distancing and masks, we had a large outdoor venue and we arranged the tables in like a giant loop with people sitting around the outside (socially distanced) so that we could all see each other. Afterward, even though we had a DJ and there was a little dancing, it really seemed like people were most keen to just catch up with each other and hang out a bit with the newlyweds (us!). We really loved it. We'd been SO STRESSED trying to figure out how we'd talk to ~100 people in just a couple of hours; how could we possibly get quality time with our guests? But having that smaller crowd gave us that opportunity and we loved it. If you want to do dancing, you can always assign someone to manage a playlist or whatever!

We are located in Philadelphia and we have very strict dining and gathering restrictions in place until 1/1/21. We are the only city in the state of PA that has the strictest restrictions! My micro wedding of 23 guests + Bride and groom is on 1/23/21. We rented out the private room on the second floor of a restaurant in Philly we are having a small ceremony, dinner and drinks to follow. We will be using Spotify for our music we are able to hook our Mac up to their av system! We are having all the traditional elements of a larger wedding such as ceremony, small family bridal party, cake and flowers etc! Our guest are immediate family only plus only 1 friend. Even with a wedding this small I’m fearing it will be cancelled! This was the perfect option because we wanted something extremely intimate but even a 25 person limit feels out of reach right now! Only advice I have is that prior to signing contracts make sure they have a Covid clause allowing you to change your date if Covid restrictions are changed and changes your guest count without a fee or loss of deposit. I wish you luck!