Our Wedding Day

Hello Friends,

Mrs. Emery here... it still feels so crazy (& amazing) to say those words!

Since our wedding day I have gotten TONS of questions from various brides, friends of brides and family members.. of brides on how we got to our wedding day and kept it as safe as possible for everyone involved. I thought it might be helpful if I shared a little bit about what we did and the precautions we took to keep the day as safe as possible. (Spoiler alert, I am so happy to say with full confidence that no one got covid who attended the wedding! YAY!)

Wedding images by Jessica Gold Photography

VENUE SIZE & GUEST COUNT: Our venue was extremely spacious and could hold well over the number of guest we chose to accommodate. This gave people lots of room to spread out!
SEATING CHART: We made sure that our guest were sat with the individuals they arrived with or had been in contact with.. for guests that weren’t familiar with each other we sat those individuals with those who had been practicing similar social distancing practices. (You think a seating chart is hard to make in general, add in COVID!!)
FOOD: We were originally going to do a buffet pre-covid but opted for a seated dinner to ensure safety for all guests. Our cater followed all CDC guidelines which included bringing wrapped utensils to each individual guest.
OPEN BAR: We set up multiple bars and hired additional bar tenders to ensure there would be no crowding at the bar.
COVID TESTING: This one is a little strange but all of our bridesmaids ended up getting tested for Covid prior to the wedding. We chose to do this due to the concerns of sharing make up, touching in pictures and the fact that multiple members in the wedding party were high risk.
STAYING IN: Us and our family members chose to stay low key 14 days out from the wedding to ensure our health for our guests AND to make sure nothing would happen to where we would have to miss our OWN wedding day! Can you EVEN imagine? Especially when you think of the perishable purchased - flowers.. food.. etc. etc.
BRACELETS: We didn’t do this at our wedding but we have seen it becoming more popular during this new normal. This is where you provide 3 different colored bands for guest to choose to wear. One color represents: They are open to hugging (touching), Another Color: Would love to chat but not touch, The last Color: Keeping their distance.
MASKS: We welcomed all guests to bring their masks and wear them if it made them feel more comfortable - not many people chose this option. What do you expect when booze starts to flow?
PRAY: Ultimately, one can only do so much to ensure individuals safety during a time like this so we prayed and prayed A LOT! We put the health and safety of our guests in God’s hands and prayed for all to be protected by him. I really felt like this was the most important part and where we needed to put our trust.
ILLNESS: Of course to come to our event we required that all our guests were well and they had not been in contact with anyone who was experiencing illness. This was actually the only reason we received any late cancellations. Our guests were very forth coming and very responsible in this category!
NERVOUS GUESTS: This one is the hardest to navigate. We had a few guest who were nervous. For the most part if our guests were nervous they simply RSVP’D NO to the rescheduled date. (Thank you for making life easy!) I think given the situation if someone is nervous to come it’s very important to not pressure them to be there. Also, for anyone involved in planning the wedding it’s already a lot to have to work through planning during a pandemic, much less dealing with other people’s nerves. If people are nervous simply let them stay home, it’ll make it easier on both you and them.
SANITIZER: Our venue provided very cute and modern hand sanitizer stations all over the place!
ZOOM: Offer to ZOOM the wedding for those who aren’t coming. We decided to do this last minute and I personally just got the email address by posting an insta story that guests could respond to! I definitely didn’t have time to contact people individually!! Ours ended up having some technical issues but these things happen! I didn’t even know till like 3 weeks after the wedding, haha! I think a Facebook live or Live Insta Story might be easier than Zoom!!
OPEN TABLES: We provided open tables that were decorated but empty in the event someone felt more comfortable sitting alone or were uncomfortable with their table.
OUTDOORS: Our venue had places people could enjoy themselves outside but the majority of our event took place indoors. Open air is said to be safer so you can choose to hold your wedding fully outdoors - ours was in July so we ended up not going with this option!
BRIDE AND GROOM SEATS: We left two empty spaces next to us to guests would have comfortable space to come up and say hello!

In the end our wedding day was amazing, we had many of our family and friends there that were near and dear to our hearts. It was about 55 people and PERFECT. The space was BEAUTIFUL, the vendors were AMAZING and even though it was smaller the space felt full and our hearts felt even fuller. We had the funnest group and all danced the night away some together and some distanced off on their own!

The planning of a wedding during a pandemic was more challenging than I ever thought it would be, let me tell you CONSTANT CHANGES & SO MANT REWORKS! But we wouldn’t of changed a thing when it comes to our wedding day! If you are trying to navigate through planning your own wedding, helping a friend or have your own family member’s wedding I am happy to answer any questions you may have about our experience, just reach out!!