Desi Weddings During COVID19 : 4 Tips to Keep Everyone Safe

By Kam

It’s been about 4 months since quarantine came into effect due to COVID19, and since then, a lot has happened in the Indian wedding industry in Canada and U.S.A. In this post, we will cover some practical tips and tools that couples to use, to still do their wedding events during this quarantine. Before we jump into those tips, let’s first do a quick re-cap of common themes we have seen over the last several months.

In March and April, the main trends we were seeing was panic amongst couples, and lost wedding deposits to vendors. Couples were under great stress due to the uncertainty of COVID19, which made it difficult to decide whether to postpone a wedding, and when to postpone a wedding to. By the same token, a high number of couples were losing thousands of dollars in deposits to vendors. Our research study suggested that each couple was losing around $13,000 CAD in vendor deposits. Furthermore, based on a Q&A session we did with a lawyer, the options for getting deposits back seemed limited, but not impossible.

By May 2020, most people whom we surveyed, had decided to postpone their wedding events to 2021 or later. Nonetheless, a minority of couples still plan to have their wedding events this year, so this post is catered to those seeking to manage their events during a pandemic.

Now, let’s move on to our 4 tips!

Tip 1: Use a Virtual Check-in – Track and trace guests and vendors using virtual check-in. Virtual check-in can keep track of who attends (guests and vendors) your wedding event, and require guests and vendors confirm that they don’t have symptoms and aren’t in a category that should be self-isolating. By tracking and tracing attendees, not only are you taking preventative measures to avoid the spread of COVID19, but you’ll also be able to respond quickly, if you learn that a COVID19-exposed person had attended the event.

Guides for Brides released their virtual check-in app recently .

Watch the video on your right, to see how the app works.

Their virtual check-in app can he found here.

Tip 2: Celebrate outside – Do an outdoor reception in a private space (use someone’s or your own backyard!). By having your event outside, you are less likely to have to deal with the issues that can arise when containing guests (and their droplets!) in a closed room.

Tip 3: Enforce a strict guestlist – For your guestlist, keep it significantly under the limits enforced by local governments. Not only can staying lower than enforced limits keep your loved ones safe, but it can also ensure you leave headcount for your vendors. One recommendation to enforce the guest capacity limit, is to assign someone to be be responsible for denying entry to anyone who was not invited to the event. Finally, ensure you give your vendors responsibilities around sanitation. For instance, ensure your servers and bar tenders are regularly sanitizing and wiping down counters, tables, and more.

Tip 4: Assign seating, by households – Assign tables and seats by household, so you can prevent guests from coming into close contact with people outside of their household. For example, if your best friend and their family are coming, seat them together at one table. Do not seat anyone else with them. By restricting tables by household, you can reduce the likelihood of people coming into contact with those with whom they do not live with.

That wraps it up for our wedding event tips during COVID19. We hope that you find some of these suggestions and tools helpful. If you have feedback or questions, let us know in the comments section!