How to Host Your St. Louis Wedding in the Midst of Coronavirus

Current Restrictions in the Greater St. Louis Area Due to Coronavirus

Right now, it looks like we’ll be gradually opening on May 18th. . That doesn’t directly mean that we can go right to having big, fun weddings and many event spaces are pretty cautious around the restrictions. 

With so many different restrictions between health officials, St. Louis County Executive Orders, the Centers for Disease Control and the individual beliefs of independent businesses, it’s hard to really navigate an easy breezy solution to having a wedding in St. Louis right now, or even into the fall.

The city of St. Louis does have pretty outlined restrictions as to what restrictions are going to be in place after May 18th and for the wedding industry those guidelines will be out later next week.  This gives us a good idea of what the impact to your rehearsal dinner, your wedding, all of the wedding events to come are going to look like.

Currently what we know based on the CDC and restrictions in other states is that social distancing will have to be adhered to for any gathering size.  When you’re having a wedding with 25+ people, social distancing isn’t the most practical thing. Obviously safety comes first, but if you’re looking for that killer wedding with all the dancing and hugs, postponing the big celebration is your best bet.  Looking to 2021-2022 for dates is going to be your best option as we continue to navigate resurges and solutions to the pandemic.

But you’re wanting to be married right now so what does that mean?

Possible Future Restrictions to Be Wary of

As we continue to open up, and stay at home orders are altered to open up our communities, there runs the risk of firm stay at home orders coming back.  Following the trends of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in our areas is the best predictor of restrictive orders being placed in the future.

That all said, future restrictions that other states are seeing:

— Groups less than 50 can congregate while still following social distancing (and mask-wearing) guidelines.

— 2-Week Quarantines for those who have gone to large events or traveled state lines.

With these two potential future restrictions in mind, having a BIG wedding doesn’t look the most appealing for 2020.  This is where livestreaming, eloping, and micro-weddings are all going to allow you to have a dream-worthy wedding in the midst of Coronavirus impacts.

Let’s Break Down Some Wedding Options in the Midst of Coronavirus in St. Louis

So now that we’ve talked about current restrictions and two predictable future restrictions, let’s talk about what your options are.

— Eloping and postponing a big party.

— Micro-weddings with livestream.

When couples come to me with adjustments in their budget, the thing I get to remind them of is if you’re shrinking your guest list down you get to spend more per guest.  Say you have 150 people, you can only afford small succulents or 3 oz gift sized bottles of maple syrup for each of your guests.  If you have 15 people, you can get them a basket of maple-themed products or a whole garden of plants.  

You can change the experience to be that much more rich and deep when there are less guests physically present for your wedding.  This is a historic challenge, this isn’t something any of our cultures or societies or communities have handled before, and definitely grieve the impacts that has for you and the community around you.

Eloping and postponing a big party.

This option is actually widely used by many millennials and young couples.  It’s a lot to get married at a fancy venue, with 150+ of your favorite people, with expensive vendors.  Having a gorgeous, elegant, beautiful elopement somewhere incredible allows you to push your budget around to make your budget really work for you. 

Use an incredible location like a state park, mountains, or even a family property for your elopement and continue on with your regular plan for the following year postponing the party.  A ton of couples often opt for this anyways if for instance they don’t want to wait a year to get married, or for instance if there’s health insurance issues.

Micro Wedding with Livestream

Having a small, micro wedding with your closest friends and family doesn’t mean everyone else has to miss out.  Following disease control and prevention protocols, you can have a “social distancing” ceremony with 10 or less, all six feet apart if from different households, and livestream the ceremony through Zoom or Facebook Groups.

Livestreaming Your Wedding with Zoom

Let it be known that if you’re going to go over 45 minutes you need to have a paid account on Zoom.  I highly recommend getting a paid account and hosting 5-6 meetings just to play around with and get to know the app.  

Make sure you disable the Waiting Room, mute everyone on entry, and remind folks to stay muted throughout (until the end, when you can unmute everyone at once and they can shower you in love and kind words!).

Check out the area you’re going to do the ceremony from to see how well the computer picks up everyone’s audio, and how well the reception is.  These are two aspects that can totally change up how well your wedding is shown.

The best part about Zoom is that the wedding can be recorded and saved automatically as an MP4 file.  In the settings, opt to have the meeting recorded when STARTED, that way you don’t have to think about recording (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to remember to record a meeting, and have not recorded something important).

Encourage your friends and family to hit those chat boxes to feel a better sense of connection to your community during your virtual wedding.  A photographer can either join you or photograph virtually from their computer at home (either screenshotting the wedding as they go, OR, by using their camera to photograph the screen — just remind them not to press the buttons to screenshot while IN the meeting as it’ll switch them over to screen share, removing your screen from the mainview and interrupting the wedding).

Livestreaming Your Wedding with Facebook Live

Invite all of your friends and family to a wedding group on Facebook.  Make sure they can invite their friends so that folks you may have invited but maybe aren’t Facebook friends with can join.  Amp up that you are getting married but have these restrictions to follow and while you’d love for everyone to be there in person it’s just not an option right now.  

The second best option, per the health departments and to make sure none of your wedding guests tested positive for COVID-19 after your wedding, is to have them join this stellar facebook group.  Give them some hints about your wedding day, or show them pictures from the venue, your engagement session, the bouquets, show them a PART of your wedding dress just to get them excited and help give them something incredible and beautiful to look forward to — YOUR wedding day.

On your wedding day, go on Facebook Live within the group, inviting everyone to watch it — send out reminds an hour before, or the morning of just to keep that positive energy flowing. When you snuggle in together as a married couple later that night (champagne and ice cream, hopefully cake too in hand) read through all the comments that people left from your Facebook Live and just absorb the love!

If you learned a ton from this, check out our other blog post about eloping in the St. Louis area.