What a wonderful day! I was on Zoom for a business meeting when it flashed up on my phone that from 1st August 2020 wedding receptions for up to 30 guests can take place in England! Woohoo!! Hopefully, my previous post on Pro’s of a Smaller Wedding will help you decide if you want to celebrate now, or if you’d rather postpone until larger weddings are permitted. Here is what we know so far…
From 1st August 2020 the government will be piloting larger gatherings; including wedding receptions for up to 30 people. There are obviously a few restrictions to this and the exact details of all restrictions are still to come but here goes:
- This is currently only applicable to England; we’re waiting on an update for the rest of the UK.
- The 30 guests include the wedding couple as well as the bridal party, children and babies.
- It does NOT include any staff employed by the venue; however if you are using an independent wedding planner they are included in the 30 (Boooo!)
- The wedding can only take place if the venue is Covid-19 secure, according to all the current guidelines – this may change as we are given more info.
- Local authorities will have the authority from tomorrow (18th July) to put their area into a local lockdown and stop/reduce certain services if there is a high risk of Covid-19; so your wedding will NOT take place if you are in a local lockdown.
All of this has only just been announced, so do keep up to date with the latest government info and I will try my best to keep you informed too but, until then, here are a few tips:
- If you have a wedding booked for August or September and are happy to reduce your numbers to 30 then please do go ahead, we all need something to lift our spirits and I can’t wait to see your wedding posts!
- Should you decide to go ahead and need to reduce your numbers, feel free to negotiate with your venue and other suppliers for the drop in numbers – but bear in mind they have taken huge financial hits; so try to keep refunds to a minimum and perhaps think about having a bigger celebration with them next year with all your original guests?
That’s all I have for now, I was just so excited I had to share it with you! Let me know if you’re planning on tying the knot in August or September? Or if you have any questions I can help with?
I look forward to hearing from you – in the meantime I’m going to do a happy dance!
