Swati Mor
For Indian families, weddings are a kind of huge celebration and festival. They are similar to a big social gathering where people gather in order to shower their blessings to the newlywed. But time has changed after the pandemic. Due to the severity of the second wave of covid-19, the government has yet again revised the celebration guidelines for the wedding ceremonies. Now, the focus is to keep the celebration simple and safe with a small gathering.
COVID wedding ideas and how weddings are celebrated during the times of COVID:
1. Revising the Guest List
Scrapping out the names to subtract the number of guests from the curated list is a very hard task, especially when you have already sent out the wedding invites. The same case has happened with many people who were left wondering after the withdrawal of relaxation on wedding attendees by the government due to increased covid cases. Due to this realignment rule, many of them requested some of their guests to attend the marriage ceremony while others to attend the reception.
2. Packing the Lunch and Dinner of Guests
In this unprecedented time, the safety of guests matters the most. Keeping this point in view, a marriage in Chennai was organized in one place where the lunch and dinner were distributed in palm leaf boxes for the attending guests, giving a perfect example of a safe and eco-friendly wedding celebration. This also sets an example for others to follow.
3. Working With the Timeline
Due to the continuous night curfew rule, the wedding arrangements continue to remain affected, be it the date of the wedding, venue of celebration or the timing. As per the claims of a wedding organizer in the national capital, people are shifting their venue to either Gurugram, Chandigarh or Dehradun due to the restrictions in the NCR area. Keeping in check the night curfew time, many families have adjusted the whole event to a daytime ceremony, while some people have postponed the event to be on the safer side.
4. Live Streaming of Marriage for the Loved Ones
Virtual celebration of events has become a new normal during the covid times. Recently, a close friend of mine attended a virtual wedding via zoom and shared her experience. Dressed up in a pink lehenga with golden embroidery, she sat on the couch, opened her laptop, logged in through her zoom account and clicked the link sent by her friend. She attended the event witnessing all the preliminary rituals and pheras of the wedlock. All the arrangements and decoration of the event were perfect as mentioned by her, and she was extremely happy to witness and attend it.
5. Following the COVID Precautionary Steps
Following the COVID precautionary steps such as wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing while attending the event. To keep in check the spike in covid cases, the wedding planners are following and requesting the attending guests and staff to follow the below mandatory steps to ensure safety.
- Entry point thermal screening for all the people attending the event
- Sanitizing hands
- Ensuring social distancing
- Wearing a face mask
6. Hosting Wedding in Open-Air Venues
The guidelines for indoor venue and open-air venue weddings are different at many places. As per the new guidelines, a maximum of 50 people was allowed for indoor venue weddings and 100 people for open-air venue weddings. There seems to be a relaxation on the maximum number of guests attending the wedding in open-air venus compared with indoor venus. Additionally, hosting a wedding in an open space also allows you to celebrate the event in the natural sunlight and replenishing fresh air. Many people in Delhi, Noida and Gurugram are shifting to this new theme of the wedding in an open space.
