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By APD writer Alice
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of life around the world in the past time and couples' wedding is not an exception. However, to adapt to the current circumstance, as the pandemic continues and many countries are still imposing social distancing regulations, there is a new trend in the organization of wedding - the great event of a life, as couples tend to choose organising micro weddings instead of large ones.
Since the intended date of the wedding was only a few days from the time Quang Ngai, a central province of Vietnam, recorded a locally transmitted COVID-19 case in late July, the wedding of groom Nguyen Hoang Thach, 26, và bride Vo Thi Nguyen, 28, in Quang Phu ward, Quang Ngai city still took place. In order to prevent the spread of the disease, their families minimised guests and especially recommended everyone attending to wear face masks.
According to the groom, if the engagement ceremony was luckily held before the COVID-19 outbreak, the wedding had to be delayed and rescheduled many times due to the pandemic. “However, despite our careful calculation, we were still unlucky. At that time, a community virus infection was detected in the ward, so our families were really worried and agreed to have a simple wedding ceremony,” said Thach.
Before the wedding took place, the groom's family carefully called each relative to tell them to wear a mask when taking part in the wedding party to protect their own health. The event saw the presence of only a few close relatives compared to 200 people as planned, whileothers stayed at home to prevent the pandemic.
At the wedding, the "honored" guests had their body temperature checked. The homeowner set regulations that guests had to wash their hands before entering the house and did not shake hands at the party.
The wedding ceremony took place for only a few hours. In particular, both groom and bride decided not to hold a party fortheir friends like normal weddings. Despite this, the couple said they were still very happy because they could show their responsibility for relatives, friends and the whole community amid the pandemic, which killed 896,000 people on the globe by September 8 morning.
Nearly half of the Earth from Vietnam, in the US, small, micro weddings have also become more popular amongs residents.
Texas law allows Four Seasons Hotel to hold each wedding with a maximum of 200 people. However, as the number of COVID-19 infections continues to rise in the US and mass gatherings remain risky, the hotel has received more requests than ever for "micro-weddings" (with a maximum of 50 guests) and“ runaway ”weddings (with only bride and groom). Not only Google searches for micro weddings have doubled since March, but other major events have been searched for smaller organizational sizes due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Although smaller weddings do not generate as much revenue as large ones, hotels in the US still pay much attention to this type, as they need business contracts tostand firm in this difficult time. According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, hotels in the US have lost more than $46 billion in room rental revenue and nearly 3.9 million jobs since mid-February.
To meet the growing demand, Four Seasons and dozens of other hotels across the country have created special packages for organising micro-scale weddings to cater to the increasing number of customers.
Joe Bartolomei, owner and manager of Farmhouse Inn in Sonoma County, California, said that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Farmhouse Inn had 25 banquet rooms. Now it limits the number of servants to14 toprepare for amicro wedding on a 10-acre campus. Recently, the hotel alsoreduced the number of attendees to a maximum of 10 per wedding. It revealed that it has held four micro and "runaway" weddings since it reopened in June , after the California lockdown order was lifted.
Yasmin Coleman and Julian Quitian, who live in Sunnyvale, California, said they wanted to have a small wedding after their engagement in December 2019, but realising that COVID-19 would make it difficult for their friends and families from Florida, California, Brazil, and Colombia to come to attend the wedding, they decided to make the event even simpler. It was a wedding with only the two of them. At the end of July, the couple got married at Farmhouse Inn in front of an iPad tablet through which their loved ones could watch their wedding thanks to Zoom software. Several guests attending the online party purchased champagne and cakes to congratulate the couple from afar.
Since Yasmin Coleman and Julian Quitian had prepared a budget for a grand wedding, they could afford the wedding and still had enough money to enjoy their honeymoon in a luxury place.
It also seems to be a common trend among couples holding micro weddings elsewhere.
Irene Robles, event manager at Belmond El Encanto Hotel in Santa Barbara, California, said the couples’ stay after their weddings was longer because they had saved a lot from organizing the simpple parties.
Lucy Coleman and Gus Kost, living in Washington DC, had planned a wedding with about 200 guests at Asheville Hotel, New York. But COVID-19 hindered that dream and forced the couple to change their plan. They decided to hold a wedding party of only 20 guests at Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Petagon City, Virginia, in a romantic and warm setting with their family members. "That's not what we envisioned, but it was a great choice. If I can decide again, I will still organize the wedding this way ”, Coleman said.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
