Getting married at the church, pushing reception?

My fiance and I just made the decision to get married on our original date and push the reception back to next year. I'm glad to hear that other couples have gone this route. I'm wondering about having a backyard BBQ to save money and avoid paying for a liquor license/smart serve caterer at our venue's reception hall.

After postponing twice my fiance and I are going through with our June 6th, 2021 ceremony no matter what. We already postponed our reception to April 2022 so we are just having our ceremony. We are hoping restaurants will be open to host a small intimate dinner, not too expensive and not too fussy. This is our plan right now but waiting on restaurants to open to plan this. I think having a potluck is a great idea and its at least doing something to celebrate your special day! Having something after our reception is important me to, even if its just going to my parents backyard as well, I just want to be able to toast to our marriage with some champagne, our parents and bridal party and also have some food! Our big party will have to wait but thats okay.

As for October, it's soo hard to tell how things will be which is the frustrating part. I would wait it out a little longer before you move your reception and also consider where you are (Im in Toronto where we are the last to move forward) if youre not in as much of a hotspot you may be okay to host your 50 people indoors. I think no matter what, for the next few years weddings will have to deal with some kind of restrictions before weddings really get back to how they used to be

BBQ would be nice.

I don't know about "no restriction dancing" considering even the Government of Ontario's website on the framework specifically states for Green Zone "Dancing, singing and performing music is permitted, with restrictions" and "Face coverings required except when eating or drinking only." And considering "Night clubs only permitted to operate as restaurant or bar," I highly doubt you're allowed a pre-pandemic style dance party. Last thing you want is for you to get in trouble because the venue gave you bad info.

I'd rather do take out than a pot luck. I would hate having to deal with making something to feed a family the night before or day of my wedding.

As for dancing, Halton Public Health specifically states:

Dancing among guests is not permitted. However, the couple’s dance and their parents (e.g., fatherdaughter, mother-son dance) can occur. Hired performers are permitted to dance provided they maintain physical distancing from guests.

So if having more than 50 people and being able to dance is a deal breaker for your wedding, then you should push the reception. Tons of people have been doing that all through 2020 and a lot in 2021 as well.