I can’t speak for everyone, but it is my dream to walk down the aisle with my love to celebrate the start of our lives together. Here’s a personal recount of my torturous wedding planning due to the inevitable third party, COVID-19, who we had to accommodate.
It all started with him proposing on New Year’s Eve in 2019, “As the new year approaches, I would like to continue to be with you, but with a different status. Will you marry me?” Therefore, I stepped into a new decade with a new status as we look forward eagerly towards our big day.
Setting A Common Goal
Communication started to revolve around the wedding, and I am glad that my partner and I have a common understanding to involve both families. Hence, we decided to go with a conventional approach. This includes following Chinese customaries and going through more processes according to our dialect group.
Things To Prepare
Having a common goal in mind, we got our Wedding To-Do List, including a Budgeting Sheet to get us started. Due to traditional beliefs, we first consulted a Fengshui Master to choose an auspicious date for us to ensure a smooth marriage life. Subsequently, we started to get quotes from vendors who holds bigger budget items, like hotels and wedding boutiques.
Things started flowing from there, with the various vendors guiding us on what to expect. Even when Circuit Breaker (CB) happened, we continued our planning and payment for our banquet of 300pax, being optimistic that COVID-19 will leave us after a year. I still remembered being so excited to book dates with the various boutiques right after CB to try on their gowns!
Although new regulations for wedding receptions were set in and we had to downsize from 300 to 100pax with each zone consisting of 50pax, we brought in livestreaming services to accommodate those who were unable to attend. Tables were also rearranged to fit 8pax per table from 5pax as the situation eased up. We also managed to take our PWS, planned our rundown, and was all geared up for the big day.
When 2021 came, things seemed to be cast in stone as we finalised the details with the hotel. We started to countdown 100days to the wedding and even got to the food tasting, but never would we have thought that things would take a turn.
Be Flexible To Changes
No matter how much we planned, we could never have predicted the COVID-19 situation. We could only go with the flow and decide on the next move when the government announced new regulations.
With Pre-Event Testing (Antigen Rapid Test) mandatory for attendees who are unvaccinated, some felt uncomfortable and thus pulled out from the event. This caused a change in our guestlist, on top of rearranging the tables arrangements back to 5pax, making the process more tiresome as the hotel also required a copy for contact tracing purposes. However, we understood the concerns of our guests due to the increase in number of COVID-19 cases.
17 days before the banquet, we were informed that our hotel venue is a full Stay-Home Notice (SHN) Dedicated Facilities (SDF). Although the hotel was cleared by the government to hold events, we chose to change a venue as we foresee a drop in attendance for our wedding. The hotel was also very accommodating to offer a full refund, which we are immensely grateful for as we have heard of some venues not allowing that.
After going through a panic attack and many calls to get a new venue sorted out, we managed to find a new place with the help of family and friends. As we ironed things out with the new hotel, the no dine in rule was set in place 8 days later.
Thankfully the new hotel allowed us to have a small function room to go ahead with an intimate solemnisation and postpone the banquet to a later date.
As we kept our guest list to 100pax, we were allowed to carry out our banquet in late July as per planned with the government revising the regulations. On the actual day, Safe Distancing Ambassadors (SDA) were also present to help with crowd control and ensure that guests do not intermingle. Despite masks being allowed to be taken off momentarily for photo-taking, attendees are unable to take photos together if they are not seated on the same table.
It has been a roller coaster ride through this planning process, still feeling surreal that it has all ended last month. For those who are planning your wedding now, I would like to share a quote from one of our entourages, “if we can plan a wedding with these many challenges, nothing from here on is impossible!” If you are an attendee to a COVID-19 wedding or have a friend who is planning their wedding, I hope this provides you with a little more insight with the stressful process. Hence, please be more understanding with all the changes as it comes.
COVID-19 has hit everyone in so many ways so let us all unite and play a part to defeat it. Stay safe and hang in there!
This article was brought to you by Leona. Riding a rollercoaster journey while adulting and always on the outlook for good drama series!
