Singaporebrides | Weddings 101

August 2020

14 Unique Challenges Only COVID-19 Wedding Couples Will Understand

A COVID-19 wedding poses a LOT of unique challenges. Thanks, 2020.

When you got engaged and happily set your wedding date for 2020 or 2021, you certainly didn’t expect a global pandemic to break out and change not only your wedding plans but also the world as we know it. With all the unpredictability surrounding weddings and regulations during this coronavirus season, you’re facing some very unique challenges no one else will understand!


1. Monitoring COVID-19 Reports and Trying to Predict the Future

You subscribe to all the COVID-19 news alerts to keep up to date with the latest case numbers and government health measures. You scour the numbers to find a downtrend, and try to guess whether things will go back to normal in time for your wedding.


2. Stressing Out Over the Uncertainties

You thought planning a wedding for 200 guests was stressful, but it didn’t come close to planning a wedding for maybe 50 guests in maybe a new venue in maybe half a year’s time. The worst part of coping with a COVID-19 wedding is the uncertainty. You can’t decide if you should postpone your overseas pre-wedding shoot in case border restrictions ease up soon. You don’t know whether to wait and see if the situation improves before you postpone your year-end wedding, scale it down to an intimate solemnisation, or cancel your banquet altogether since you’ve already registered your marriage. And the stress-eating isn’t helping your wedding diet. AND, do you even still need a wedding diet?!


3. Changing Your Wedding Plans More Times Than Phoebe in F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

You decided to go ahead with your original wedding date, and then the news of Circuit Breaker Phase 1 was announced. Or, you finally made peace with the fact that you would be exchanging your vows only in front of your family, then one week before your solemnisation, the news break that you can celebrate with up to 50 pax. Time for Plan B Plan C Plan G.


4. Feeling Secretly Happy You Don’t Need to Hold the Big Expensive Wedding Your Parents Wanted

You had always dreamed of a beautiful intimate wedding in an alternative venue, where you and your closest friends could celebrate, drink, and enjoy one another’s company with good food and better desserts. Now that THE LAW dictates your wedding size be kept to 50 (gahmen say one, Ma), you’re secretly happy that you can spend your wedding budget on that designer wedding gown, luscious grazing table, and personalised favours to create an intimate wedding experience that really reflects the two of you.


5. Scouting Photography Locations that Look Least Like You’re Stuck in Singapore

Circuit Breaker might be over but you’re still heartbroken over your cancelled pre-wedding travel plans. Never mind, your photographer assures you he’s found local scenes that will make you look like you managed to evade the border police. You’re about to take Instagram vs. Reality shots to the next level.


6. Going Cross-Eyed Reading about How to Implement the Latest Health and Safety Measures

Does all the legalese mean you can or cannot take off your mask during your solemnisation? Sick of sifting through section 1-10 and paragraphs A to Z of the latest health and safety regulations? Check out our COVID-19 wedding regulations FAQs.


7. Wondering What to Wear… Again

Just when you thought you had finally made up your mind on your gown selection from your bridal boutique, you need to reconsider your choices to suit your new smaller solemnisation. At least this task is rather a fun one to check off your list. For inspiration, check out our edit of favourite minimony looks!


8. Finding Creative Ways to Style Your Mask

Okay, so besides the veil, the shoes, and the jewellery, you now need to style your wedding dress with a mask. We’ve rounded up some vendors who offer pretty lace and embellished bridal masks to complement your dress, and sartorial options for the grooms. We’ve also seen COVID-19 wedding couples get creative with custom embroidery, creating Mr and Mrs masks that are so cute in photos.


9. Dividing Your Tables of Ten into Parties of Five

As if it wasn’t hard enough to group your guests into tables of ten, you now have to divide your BFFs into parties of five and stop them from mingling.


10. Teaching Your Aunties to Use Zoom or Facebook Live

Besides becoming a tech expert so you can set up your DIY live stream from multiple angles, you also have to teach your grandparents and all your aunties and uncles how to use Zoom so they can watch your solemnisation.


11. Wishing You Had Gotten Married Last Year

WHO SAID 2020 WOULD MAKE A NICE NUMBER FOR A WEDDING ANNIVERSARY? Oh wait, that was you.


12. Crying Over Your Honeymoon

You tamped down your wanderlust to save up for your big romantic holiday to tour vineyards in Tuscany and watch sunsets in Santorini, only to have the coronavirus ruin travel for 2020.


13. Focussing on Being Married to Each Other

After a whirlwind of emotions, you take a breath and realise that a lot of things might be cancelled but love definitely isn’t. You start to focus on the most important part of your wedding—that you will be making a commitment to each other and starting a life together. Facing the stress and hassle together actually made your relationship stronger, and you focus on building a marriage.


14. Getting Creative with Personalising Your Wedding

Since you’re having a smaller solemnisation, or have more time to prepare for a postponed wedding, you find creative ways to personalise it. With a smaller celebration, you can allocate more of your budget on creating a more memorable and unique experience for your guests. Personal touches like handwritten notes to each guest, customised favours, or handcrafted décor—all these are more feasible when you have an intimate guest list of 50 of your nearest and dearest. It’s time to make your postponed wedding or intimate solemnisation a true reflection of you as a couple!


Janice and Glen’s Stunning Pre-Wedding Shoot in Cappadocia, Turkey by White Grandeur

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14 Unique Challenges Only COVID-19 Wedding Couples Will Understand