How to Celebrate Safely During COVID-19
June gloom is gone and summer is here! In the Pacific Northwest, this would usually mean beach bonfires, camping trips with friends, and coming out of winter hibernation to socialize with friends and family. This year, it’s a little different. We are in the middle of a pandemic and processing the drastic change it has had on each of our lives. More than ever, we would like to let down our hair and have some good old-fashioned fun. But we have to be reasonable and respectful. Here at Tapestry, we are taking the pandemic seriously, as well as all the restrictions and precautions that come along with it. As we navigate these new waters, we have put together a collection of ideas to help you have fun and follow health and safety guidelines.
In general, having a wedding and maintaining social distance is difficult. The hugging, posing, and dancing don’t lend themselves well to being six feet apart. There are huge aspects of what we think of as togetherness that couples have had to sacrifice in order to get married with their friends and family present. But for many couples, they are worth implementing so that they can have their guests present and safe.
We are spending a lot of time with couples creating safe ideas for weddings as well as crafting brand new celebrations for couples who want to downsize their celebration from a wedding to an elopement. Below are some guidelines for couples who are looking to have their family and friends present at their celebrations and guidelines for those looking to elope.
GUIDELINES FOR WEDDINGS WITH FAMILY + FRIENDS PRESENT:
Expand the flow of the day.
Think about the footpaths of the entire day, the movement of guests and where large groups will be clumped together. Have a conversation with the coordinator about ways to make sure that guests are excused to various activities in small groups. If there are footpaths that narrow, see how you can expand the area so that people walking past each other can be six-feet apart. If you don’t have a coordinator who can give guests directions, consider sending out an email or creating extra signage so that your guests know how to participate and navigate your wedding in the safest way possible.
Designate a host for your food and bar services.
Limiting opportunities for exposure is key when it comes to keeping your guests safe during the pandemic. The greater effort you make to limit exposure, the safer your event will be. The biggest step you can take to limit exposure from an event host’s perspective is limiting the amount of touches on food and drink items. This may mean you convert your open buffet to a hosted buffet, or your family style meal to a plated meal, in an effort to limit the number of hands touching everyone’s plates, serving utensils, and the meal itself. You may also convert your non hosted bar to a hosted bar (whether it be a professional bartender or your trusted Cousin Irene) to limit the number of people touching shared containers and to ensure guests reuse or re-up their cups and glassware properly.
Create dining pods.
Kate, planner extraordinaire, has been spending time with couples creating groups for guests according to who they are housed with. This way, when they take off masks to eat, they are with people that they are already sharing germs with. You can use these pods to let people participate in different activities, like photos, celebratory hugging, dancing, and dessert gathering. ;)
Make masks part of the day.
While masks are not always comfortable and can smear someone’s lipstick, they have shown to be vitally important to staying safe from the virus. Invite guests to find masks that match their outfit or make their own. Some couples invite guests to decorate masks at their gathering so as an activity. By making masks a fun part of the day, they seem slightly less like a chore to wear. You will see us at all of our intimate gatherings with masks on!
Use wine or drink markers with reusable backups.
You can pre-place these on guests’ glasses to make sure everyone follows suit. Each guest will have their own glass, with either their name written on it or a fun little decoration. If a guest misplaces their glass, make sure there is a backup so that they can continue to imbibe safely. And the best backup to the backup? Make sure to have recyclable alternatives to key dining items like drink ware and silverware. This ensures that the items most frequently touching hands and faces only belong to one person. We love:
Silicone Markers / World Travel Markers (like Monopoly pieces!) / Emoji Markers
Embrace background music and discourage getting down on the dance floor.
We love a good party, but as we all know, getting our grooves on tends to bring us in close proximity to others. Layer in alcohol and a celebratory atmosphere, and safe social distancing becomes nearly impossible in any dance floor scenario. To encourage guests to still maintain social distance, curate a playlist of your favorite soft songs with activities the guests can do outdoors. Things we discourage under the current circumstances? We discourage live bands because they tend to bring a high level of energy that corresponds to a looser observance of social distancing than a DJ (which breaks our hearts, because live bands are our favorite). We discourage a defined dance floor because humans instinctively like to obey the rules at a social gathering and will try to fit themselves on the dance floor if you designate one. If you feel strongly about having a slow dance, you can invite guests to join you in a very far apart in an open field. But, in general, dancing in shared spaces isn’t going to be conducive to safely celebrating.
GUIDELINES FOR MORE INTIMATE CELEBRATIONS:
Communicate with any witnesses about socialization.
If you are planning on bringing along a friend or family member or two to witness your elopement, make sure you are communicating with them about how much social activity you have been participating in. As long as everyone is transparent about how much they are going out into the world and how comfortable they are, you will be golden to spend this day pleasantly celebrating with each other!
Record/stream your ceremony.
Wishing your family could be with you on this special day? Record or stream the ceremony so that your family and friends can view it later and feel like they were part of the day. You can do this by having a videographer or setting up a tripod yourself in front of the ceremony site.
Set up a video chat event for after your day!
Invite your important people that are you are missing the most to an online event either the evening of your elopement or the day after. That way, you can spread and share the love and joy you feel of finally being married. If you would like, you can ask guests to give toasts or share memories of you as a couple.
Photos courtesy of Forthright Photo.
We truly believe that you can celebrate with joy on your wedding or elopement day while still maintaining safe practices. While the day may not look exactly as you originally imagined, you can still protect your guests’ safety and invite them to celebrate with you by adopting some of these ideas. And these are not comprehensive! Please let us know if you have other ideas and solutions for joyous social distancing.
— Kelleen, Tapestry Content Manager + Kate, Tapestry Creative Director
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