Couples planning to get married later this year are increasingly concerned about having to postpone or cancel their wedding, despite the maximum number of wedding and civil partnership participants today rising to 30 in England and 50 in Scotland.
While some hope for the best and stick to their appointments, others postpone despite worries about losing money – and many more have already given up.
In England, the participant limit is to be lifted altogether on June 21, but that could change if the Indian variant of the coronavirus leads to an increase in the number of cases.
The latest exclusive and sharpest analyzes, curated for your inbox
There was already uncertainty in Wales because the Cardiff government has not released target dates for the restrictions to lift – leading some venues to insist that even ceremonies at the end of July could still only accommodate 30 people.
A couple told I of her disappointment in unloading 80 guests to a Pembrokeshire wedding months away because of the inflexibility of its venue.
Around 220,000 weddings were postponed last year – 80 percent of the total that took place in 2019 – and more could still follow despite hopes for the “grand reopening,” adding to further chaos for a £ 14.7 billion industry. not to mention the couple who cares.
Among those planning to get married this year is writer and broadcaster Matt Cain. The writer got engaged to partner Harry Glasstone in August last year.
“It had not occurred to us in autumn 2020 that a wedding booked for December 29, 2021 could not take place,” he said.
Mr Glasstone’s family and closest friends, including his best man, are expected to arrive from South Africa, which is currently on the UK government’s red travel list.
The couple is “going full steam ahead” with their planning, but postpones it if guests cannot attend. However, Mr. Cain tries to see the bigger picture. “We had to wait a long time to find love. In addition, gay men had to wait a long time for the right to marry! “
Katie Jennings, 31, and her fiancé Joe Sayer, 32, of London, meticulously planned their wedding in the village of Dunsfold, Surrey, for the summer of 2020, but canceled it six weeks before it ended. They have rearranged it four times since then. Ms. Jennings said, “We postponed it until this May, but in January we thought, ‘It’s not going to happen, is it?'”
They set a new date for September, but trying to rearrange the caterers and the band was an “absolute nightmare,” she said, adding, “I find it hard to get upset because things seem uncertain, but I want to wait. ” to have the wedding I planned before the pandemic. “
Katie Jennings and her fiancé Joe Sayer have rearranged their wedding four times since last summer (Photo: Supplied)
Charlotte, 30, a Buckinghamshire real estate investment manager, has had to rearrange her wedding three times since its original date late last summer. Now she hopes to finally marry her fiancé Ali in August.
“I’ll try to have the big 100 people wedding but make it more of a party mood,” she said. The couple reformatted their plans to focus less on the formal three-course meal while sitting – and more on the fun. “After being locked in for so long, I don’t want to spend so much time on the formalities, I just want to join the party right away.”
She tries to be open about how things are going to play out. “I don’t want to get too upset about it just in case we have to cancel again,” she said. “My friends are confident that it will continue, that gives me a little more confidence.”
Anya Atgaze from Reading has given up on her plan for a big wedding reception this summer. She and her husband Onur Yilmaz had hoped to bring the Turkish and Latvian sides of their families together in Turkey. But without knowing when international travel would be possible, the couple tied the knot in a registry office in April, followed by an al fresco dinner with four friends in the restaurant.
Anya Atgaze, a 29-year-old telesales manager and fashion blogger from Reading, with her husband Onur Yilmaz (Photo: Supplied)
They will celebrate with the family when the situation allows. “We don’t know when our party in Turkey will be possible, but we hope to be able to combine it with another meaningful event like our wedding day,” said Ms. Atgaze.
Sometimes a change of plan can be good. Clare Baranowski, a marine biologist from Cornwall, knew that she “never wanted a traditional wedding or the big white dress.”
She and her partner Beau Nixon planned a wedding with 120 guests in a rural garden. “I felt like it was what everyone was expecting,” she said, “but if I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it as much. I was too keen to see if my guests would like it. “
When the Covid restrictions reduced her guest list to just 10 last August, Ms. Baranowski got the celebration she had always dreamed of: a picnic in the garden of the house where she grew up. “I just wanted to walk around barefoot, dance and lie in the sun,” she says.
Clare Baranowski and her husband Beau Nixon (Photo: Clare Baranowski)
When Jenny Wilson, a 32-year-old civil servant in Edinburgh, was able to exchange her 90-guest wedding with her partner Kieran Nolan for a micro-celebration for 30 people in July, she took the opportunity.
“I wanted a small wedding anyway and it’s a lot cheaper,” said Ms. Wilson. “Covid made me realize that the most important thing is to spend time with family and friends. Everything else, all the materialism, just falls away. ”The couple are happy to spend a portion of the £ 27,000 they saved on other life milestones, such as their Cocker Spaniel puppy.
However, she still hopes the social distancing rules will be further relaxed by the big day. “Maybe my father can lead me to the altar in July,” she said. “We’re planning to get married outside, but the Scottish weather is so spirited that it would be great if we could be maskless inside too!”
Matt Cain’s novel “The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle” is out May 27 (£ 16.99 headline)
