From 23rd March onwards large gatherings of people have been banned and weddings have been postponed to future dates. This must be very stressful and in some cases expensive and frustrating for brides, grooms, their families and their wedding suppliers, causing a knock-on effect all down the line from venues to caterers to florists. The whole wedding industry has been rocked from March to - who knows when?
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| Small outdoor ceremonies might be the way forward this summer. |
To be honest I had no weddings booked between February and July this year anyway, so I've been lucky, but not everyone has been so fortunate.
According to Metro.co.uk, in Northern Ireland measures seem to be relaxing slightly with weddings being permitted where one partner is terminally ill. Also in NI, outdoor weddings of no more than ten people may be allowed from 10th June. Inspired by this the UK government is looking into the possibility of allowing small weddings to take place from the end of this month. As long, presumably, as there is no second wave.
So what does this mean? Several of my clients who booked me to film their big day this year have asked if I'm available in 2021 and 2022, and happily, I've been able to accommodate their rescheduling with a minimum (actually zero) of fuss and/or expense. I can only imagine how agonising something like this can be and am very happy to help where possible.
However, if you're really keen to have a 2020 wedding later in the year it may be necessary to look at small, outdoor ceremonies. How would that work? One solution might be to have two events : the legal/spiritual one with just your closest family and friends in a garden this year (with live video links?), followed by a larger friend and family reception with speeches, dancing etc next year or beyond.
My wife and I got married in Japan in 2008. Our son was already on the way, so we had to kind of speed things up a bit because it's not so easy to register children born out of wedlock in Japan yet, and there are still stigma involved compared to the UK and other western countries. My father and sisters could attend in person, but unfortunately my mother had a bad back and couldn't fly over from Scotland, so I attempted to live-stream the ceremony using my laptop and Skype over a wireless internet connection.
Good idea? No.
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| Just watch out for hay fever! |
On paper this might sound like a plan, but unfortunately, as old Murphy was fond of saying, "What can go wrong will go wrong," and in this case did. Tip #7: Never try to film your own wedding.
The internet connection was intermittent at best on the lead up to the ceremony. We did see each other on the screen for a brief while, but then the inevitable happened. Mum had her hopes up and all her friends with her in the middle of the night, only to have them dashed when the connection crashed almost immediately, and I wasn't able to tinker with it because - ahem - I was otherwise engaged. I couldn't really stop the priest and say, "Sorry, just a sec. Mum! Can you hear me now? How about now? Damn, where can I plug this in? Do we have an ethernet here in this lovely rooftop venue? Oh dear, my wife-to-be's water just broke. Let's get on, shall we?"
Joking aside, nowadays live-streaming has become much more achievable and commonplace. Just don't do it yourself. Please. Ask your videographer. What would it take? A strong dependable ethernet connection, an encoder, and a youtube or Vimeo channel would probably do it. It might cost a little extra to get it done properly, but with all the uncertainty in the world today - technical gremlins notwithstanding - it must be well worth it.
Anyway, our wedding went without further mishap (apart from a few tears on my mum's side) and happily our son was born a couple of months later. Then we set up a reception back in Scotland for all our UK friends which you can see a video of here.
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| Our family wedding reception in 2010 |
We were able to enjoy seeing all our family and friends at this second gathering without the stress of the ceremony, had a few speeches, and made some nice memories. It was actually pretty great and I'd recommend it.
Anyway, whatever happens, I hope your wedding takes place with a minimum of fuss and that you can enjoy it as the wonderful, love-filled, friend and family involved, food and drink laden, humorous speech entailed day and night it should be - whether spent over one day or two :)
If you'd like to enquire about our availability to film your wedding please email Chris at info@whiteorchidweddingfilms.co.uk or call/text 0789 9718 775.
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