The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 changed every aspect of our lives, including how we celebrate weddings. In the early stages of the pandemic, most weddings were cancelled or postponed, but later, couples learned to adjust and now there is a variety of COVID-19 wedding trends that are not only gaining popularity right now but will also likely stick around after the pandemic. Here are the biggest ones of them.
More Selective Guest Lists
The days when large weddings could have had 300 guests and more are probably gone, at least for the next few years. In the coming months, the brides and grooms will be more selective about their guest lists. Even the biggest weddings likely won’t have more than 100 guests, with many couples in 2020 and 2021 opting for miniature wedding ceremonies with only around 10 guests in attendance.
Guests In Shifts
If you have hundreds of people in your wedding list and absolutely cannot get rid of any of them, your only option is to invite your guests in shifts. It will need a lot of careful planning, but at the end of the day, it’s possible to invite several shifts of guests and spend one or two hours with each of them. Of course, you may be even more exhausted than normal after a shift wedding, but at least, there won’t be any hurt feelings from your guests.
Outdoor Weddings
Outdoor weddings have been fairly popular already, but they are expected to surge in popularity during the next few years. You may have dreamed about a restaurant wedding or another fancy venue, but outdoor weddings have numerous advantages. Not only do they look beautiful and can be tailored to all kinds of tastes, but they also make it easier to follow the social distance requirements with the help of seating arrangements.
More Daring Fashion Choices
Months of quarantine have made sweatpants and sweatshirts the standard uniform for millions of us, so when the occasion requires you to make more of an effort with your look, people are going to take that chance. Fashion choices are bound to get more dating and you can finally unleash your fantasy with your wedding look. This is true not only for the newlyweds, but also for the guests.
- Experiences Instead Of Things
Wedding presents are an essential aspect of weddings, and they are bound to be changed by quarantine and COVID-19 as well. Instead of gifts such as kitchen and decor items, couples will put other things on their wedding registries: things that can bring them new experiences such as tours, helicopter riding, or horseback riding sessions.
Monetary Gifts
Giving money as wedding gifts is already customary in many countries, and it’s going to become even more common everywhere in the world this year. If the pandemic has proven one thing, it’s that most of us are far from the desirable level of financial stability. Giving the couple money instead of gifts will help them improve their finances after major wedding expenses and can help them fulfil their major dream, such as put the down payment for their own house.
Single-Serve Foods
A good wedding cannot be imagined without plenty of good food. In the coming years, instead of big dishes that are distributed among guests, each guest will receive a plate with a ready portion of the food to avoid the food being handled by many different people. This also concerns wedding cakes, which will now begin to get replaced with individual cupcakes, cake pops, cookies, doughnuts, and other single-serve sweets.
Culled from JiJi
