Advice from previous Brides that had their wedding during Covid

View quoted message Your video is so beautiful!!! Congrats!! 😍😍😍

We went micro “big”.


It was legit more than I could have ever imagined. In our parents backyard with just put parents and siblings so we didn’t have to get choosy with other familyMembers.
The food we had catered was AMAZING.
And I made it the day I always envisioned. I can’t even begin to tell you how worth it is was. I had a funny feeling last year things weren’t going to go my way if I postponed. So we just went ahead with as much as we could on our original day.


https://youtu.be/i1YLQPL67bYhttps://youtu.be/i1ylqpl67by

We had a small ceremony on the beach and a reception at my parents home with just our wedding party and the immediate family who were able to attend.


While we definitely missed having certain people there, I don't regret our small wedding at all! I felt less stress (partly because it was a smaller event and partly because we plan to have a reception this year which meant I got a do-over on anything that went wrong), we got to spend more time together, and more time with the people who did attend. I also found I got a lot less opinionated advice from people: no one can tell you your plan isn't their thing when you're a pandemic bride! No one judged our decision to skip a full meal (because our best friends didn't care, they were happy to be there at all), no one judged our guest list (because there basically wasn't one!) no one told me a beach in October is a foolish idea (and it was a beautiful day). I do hope we can pull off our "second wedding" this fall. To me the biggest issue is importing my in-laws from the US.

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Thank you for your response! We definitely gave it some thought and we're going to go ahead with it. Things are still up in the air in B.C. so hopefully in July we could have more guests than 50 but if not, that's ok. We'll enjoy it either way && can always celebrate with a party later on.

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Oh was this at the Garden Strathcona on Hastings? We were debating booking it for our wedding last year but ended up chancing late November weather in Stanley Park haha!

Hello! Thought I'd add my story to the list!

My husband and I got engaged in June 2019, and originally had planned for our wedding to take place in May 2021. As COVID hadn't been getting any better, I really was doubting what to do. We had booked our venue in Dec 2019 so as 2020 went on, I started getting worried.

At the time - I was upset - but in Aug 2020 our venue reached out to us. They unfortunately were unable to renew their lease for 2021 and had to cancel all 2021 events - leading to a full refund (thank goodness) of our deposit. After a couple weeks - I realized this was really a blessing in disguise! As much as I'd loved that venue, being able to get our deposit back was amazing. We still have some deposits down on other vendors, but definitely on a smaller scale than the venue deposit.

After we got that back, we started thinking - did we want to rebook for that same time? Cases in BC haven't been getting better. Postpone further? Yes, but its so hard to book anything. In September, we came up with the idea to just elope with a super tiny ceremony, as our 10 year anniversary of being together was in December, and so we went with that instead! Very different from what I'd always envisioned as we both have big friend circles and family we wanted to share it with - and we do still plan to have a big party when we can all gather again one day - but our intimate ceremony ended up absolutely beautiful. It was just us, our parents, officiant, and photographers. Super, SUPER small and we surprised all our friends later with the photos.

Don't regret it - and obviously if things in the world were different, it would have been very different, but we look forward to celebrating with everyone perhaps on an anniversary or vow renewal or something further down the road. =)

So even if its not your original plan - I'm sure you'll have a beautiful ceremony and wedding and make some beautiful memories!

Thank you everyone that has responded to my message and for your kind words. I definitely feel better now that I've heard from some of your experiences with going through with your weddings. In B.C. right now we are still up in the air with how many people are allowed to attend weddings so hopefully things get better and we can have at least 50 people.

View quoted message Such a good comparison. I’d really love to pay for long harvest tables and connect them all so we can continue conversations all night!

View quoted message Oh and thank you for the compliment on our photo!!

View quoted message Yay! I love that. Your small, but intimate wedding is going to be so memorial. Especially because you are mixing family AND friends. Some friends are like family. You heard right, the day does fly by! I feel like I blinked, and bam it was the end of the night and we were going to our hotel. But, because it was small scale, I got to take in EVERYTHING! My friend got married last January (before covid hit) and she had 150 guests and I just remember her and the groom walking around the ENTIRE time saying hello to all the tables. They didn’t eat dinner, they didn’t dance, it was horrible. My husband and I sat down for dinner, and we would have a few bites of food, and then start walking around and chatting. We did that for each course. And it was so laid back because we didn’t have a lot of tables to visit! We actually got to enjoy our wedding dinner, while chatting with our friends and family at the same time. I really feel like these small weddings are a blessing in disguise! You will not regret a thing. Plus, you can use the money you save for some upgrades... maybe more flowers? Or whatever you want!

View quoted message This is literally exactly what we have planned! 50 people with our immediate family and closest friends only. Honestly I think it will be a blessing for the intimate connections that we can have on our day. One thing I always hear from married couples is that the day flies... having a small guest list I feel like will make it a lot less rushed and chaotic. And I feel like we’ll be some of the only couples in the next few decades who can choose to have a small wedding without getting a lot of flack from everyone! We will also be spending more on the nice details ☺️


Your wedding looks like it was stunning!!!

Your envisioned wedding may not be the dreams of the celebration though a smaller wedding can be special too with your family and friends. Times make it tough with everything happening and making your moment a positive one to remember.

To me a wedding is about a union between your partner and yourself, everyone else is just there to witness you guys. The people coming to your wedding will not be living and experiencing your marriage so I believe it is more personal and more meaningful to do it with just the two of you. It is about a lifetime together, not just about one special day, what makes it special is the two of you joining as one. It is about you and your partner, no one else. I am getting married to the one I love this March 7th. The only people who are going to be there are my mom and my two brothers along with one of my fiancé's friends. If you have ever watched Braveheart you would know what I am talking about lol. I hope you the best in your marriage and I hope you have a beautiful wedding day with your partner

Oh, and the restrictions allowed us to dance in our own social circles. So we still had first dances, and all of my guests danced and partied! It was very fun.

I love this question! I feel like I’ve shared my story a few times already, but I never get sick of it. My husband and I got married October 10, 2020. Our originally wedding guest list was around 130-150 people. We had to cut this down to 50 people (we did immediate family, and our closest friends). The most important people were there. So, we picked a new venue, something that would be better suited for 50 people indoors (as our old venue is just way too big for that). We got engaged at a winery, so we thought hey why not get married at a winery? Wineries are expensive, but with only 50 guests including ourselves, the costs were manageable. So, we decided to do our ceremony and reception at Chateau Des Charmes in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The beauty of the venue speaks for itself. Because our guest list was smaller we were saving a lot of money... so I got to spend extra on flowers and we even built an arch (see photo below)! I loved loved loved my wedding. I do not regret a single thing! The whole experience was so intimate and personal. My bridesmaids came over in the morning and we had lunch and mimosas. We all got ready together and photographers took photos. The groomsmen and the groom did the same thing. We took a limo to the venue. I do not feel like I missed out on anything! You know what is so nice about a small guest list? I got to talk to every single person and had meaningful conversations. Not just “hey thanks for coming!” My husband and I got to spend quality time together as husband and wife because we didn’t have hundreds of guests to say hi to. Honestly, it was my dream wedding.

Hi, I am in the same boat as you, I am July 17th so a week after you. My fiance and I have discussed postponing the reception part of our wedding due to Covid but we decided we still want to get married on our day no matter what. We are planning a ceremony with which ever amount of people the Quebec government will allow and we still are going to have our photographer and videographer there to capture the day.
We feel better in the end waiting to do the big party with everyone, especially since the main issue is that a lot of our family will not or cannot come (Covid fears, traveling, etc...) being an Italian means having a big celebration, and we believe moving that to next year gives us a better chance of having that. Also at this point we are just so excited to get married, even if it isn't how we expected!

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That's such a good point that people will still have fun with restrictions because of how cooped up we've all been! Sometimes I look back and think, damn we should have moved our wedding up to the summer of 2020 because at least we could have had a dinner lol. Oh well.

Just with regard to the last piece of advice here: I don't think you need to have a big life moment hanging on getting married to still go through with your wedding. None of these thing were factors for us but we just wanted to be married.

So for the Daniella that wrote the original post, I think it doesn't hurt to consider this and this certainly could be the deciding factor for you for sure. But even if you don't have these reasons to get married like kids or moving in together, it's still totally ok to just want to be married and have your wedding now instead of postponing. Don't let anyone guilt you or talk you into postponing because they think you'll be happier in the long run or because they made that decision. Only you and your partner can decide what is right for the two of you and decide whether you'll be happier to have your wedding this year or postpone.

I was supposed to get married in June 2020 and then last minute (in August) decided to just go through with it in September 2020 rather than waiting till May 2021 (our postponed date) man am I so glad We did it in September.


At that time the restrictions were 100 allowed outdoors and 50 indoors. We had to shift a lot and compromise on things but everything went literally perfect. And prob better than my original wedding except for the party of course. I did miss the dancing I am sure everyone did but it was not boring at all, if anything people were like man I am now in the mood to party bc it was so fun rather than oh im so glad to go home.
Do I regret going through with it? No.
Did I miss the dancing? yes of course but i got to have my first dance and party per se was not the part I envisioned about my wedding tbh like when someone asked me what are you most excited about my answer was never the party. It was always gtn to live with my husband (we couldnt unless we were married), or the church part, or everything looking nice and perfect (i am a perfectionist) but I never answered with the party. Though I am latina and LOVE to dance and party is a huge part of my culture but I know I can have a party literally any time. And honestly my wedding was still a party despite there not being any dancing.
I will say restrictions sadly are highly dependant on venues. I saw ppl having weddings around the same time and their venues allowed full on dancing but with masks so its quite arbitrary which isnt great.
But the bottom line is this (imo) and the advice I give friends in this position:
is pushing the wedding going to stop or delay a pivotal moment in your life or relationship? Ie is not gtn married asap gonna delay you having kids, you living with your husband, you not being able to move elsewhere, etc like important life decisions. If no, postpone.
If yes, do the thing, without compromising your core values/needs and do the rest later. My compromise was no dancing/no party but I get to move in with my husband so there is no comparison and if there was then hmmm I prob shouldnt have gotten married lolll

We got married November 28, 2020. We initially planned a 100 person wedding. Once covid happened we planned to downsize to immediate family only. Then in the fall the situation in BC started to worsen and we considered eloping. Ultimately, we had to totally scrap any sort of a reception because BC restricted all social gatherings a couple of weeks prior but we had a 10 person ceremony with my husband's family outdoors. My family wasn't able to come because they live in Alberta.

I have absolutely no regrets about our wedding. I loved that it was about me and my husband and we got to spend the entire day together. We still got our photos done and we ordered a nice meal from one of our favourite restaurants. We also video chatted with our families in the evening.

Some people suggested that we postpone even just a few months so we could have some sort of a dinner afterwards, but that wasn't what was important to me and I knew we couldn't predict what would happen over the next few months. We still want to have our reception at some point in the future but we aren't planning anything until there is more certainty about the future re covid.

I think you need to reflect on what's most important to you and your partner. If it's extremely important to have the big wedding you pictured and you think you'll have regrets, then it might be worth postponing. But I will say if you don't postpone and decide to go ahead with a small wedding, you need to be prepared to downsize to an elopement at the last minute if necessary because the situation is so up in the air right now. I know for me, I would have regretted postponing our wedding because the most important thing to me by a long shot was marrying my husband.