Receptions prohibited by governor

Honestly there isn't any way to pull that off. How is a ceremony where people are gathered different from a reception? What are the exact restrictions listed for the reception portion? Is dancing forbidden? If so, you can still have a reception and it's common in some circles to mingle and eat with no dancing.


Even in a pandemic, etiquette is still in place no matter what and you can't invite someone to a ceremony and not a reception.
Can you move the wedding (both parts) to a park or someone's backyard where guests are spaced out?

View Quoted Comment Unfortunately all the information he provided was that weddings can have up to 30 people and rehearsals are outright forbidden

View Quoted Comment The wedding is already being held in the backyard at a friend's house. My fiance and I wouldnt mind a spaced out picnic reception but my family doesn't want to go against the restrictions

View Quoted Comment Go forward with the reception until you hear otherwise. It's automatically part of a wedding regardless of the guest count.


You can skip the rehearsal.

View Quoted Comment I totally typoed. I meant to say receptions are outright forbidden

View Quoted Comment As long as you are spaced out appropriately, with masks and hand sanitizer, you will be fine. When the state is making regulations, they are assuming that everyone and their brother only considers getting married in cookie cutter banquet halls and don't factor in outdoor backyard/park options at all. With the backyard venue, don't stress beyond sticking with the guest count.

View Quoted Comment They aren't going to come to your house and say you can't have a party in your own home. Talk to your vendors and see if they will still be able to work. If they can't or won't then you might have to postpone or get creative with DIY.

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I am not sure where you are, but I agree with your family, if a wedding reception is forbidden, don’t do it. This is serious and people who fail to comply, could have consequences. And what if someone gets sick, and they do contact tracing, and realize your reception, that shouldn’t have happened, caused an outbreak. They aren’t forbidding wedding receptions for fun. I am so sorry you are dealing with this. It is one thing to reduce the guest count, but not being able to celebrate after, even with a small group just sucks. What is considered a “wedding reception” though lol Are gatherings of any kind allowed? If you had a dinner party the following day, is that considered a wedding reception....?

What state is this? im curious to look up the regulation

Hmmmm like pp Mentioned it sounds kind of vague in terms of what do we define As a reception? If it means no eating or anything that might even rule out a cake and punch afterwards? So the other thing I can think of is maybe taking photos with everyone there and passing out favors that they can eat or enjoy at home. I think taking photos with them after the ceremony would at least take up more time overall.

Your other option would be to postpone until a later date.

View Quoted Comment I’m guessing Washington since I live here and have heard the same guidance.

View Quoted Comment I do see it says no reception but restaurant dining is still allowed. can you still have a little gathering at a restaurant?

We’re in Washington as well and are having the same issue. Our venue will let us do a champagne toast after a ceremony, but that’s it. We’re most likely cancelling all together and just eloping. I’ll still wear my dress even if it’s a courthouse elopement because I’ll wear it one way or another. It really sucks, there’s honestly nothing we can do about it except for postpone at least a year down the road to when there might be a vaccine. Restaurants aren’t allowing groups of more than 5 and everyone dining together must have proof or living at the same address, so even dinners are out of the question.

This is an arbitrary and logicless guideline, and if your reception is at a private residence, I think you should consider breaking it.

View Quoted Comment Yes!!! I am in agreement with this. This seems like an absurd and vague restriction. Do what you want, in the safest way possible.

View Quoted Comment I think what we're leaning towards is having the rehearsal dinner be more of the reception and do toasts and some dancing then. And at the ceremony when there is more people, have italian sodas and pubmix in mason jars and individual cupcakes that people grab prior to the ceremony. Then at the end of the ceremony do a brief cake cutting and the shoe game and some pictures before taking off. It seems like the best compromise for the restrictions we're given.

View Quoted Comment That’s a great idea! I’m sure that’ll add some more time to it and allow your guests to have some yummy snacks.

I don't see how "wedding receptions" can specifically be prohibited when ceremonies and other gatherings aren't. Are they defining what a reception is? Are there specific activities at a reception that aren't allowed? I could see if, for example, dancing was prohibited, the number of people eating together was limited, or gatherings were limited, but what makes a reception a reception and how is that different (or better or worse than) things like protests, sporting events, wedding ceremonies and other things that are allowed?

Our wedding date fell during the thick of shut-down in our state so we ended up having a mini-ceremony elopement with just our parents and some close friends. Group size was limited to 10, lodging and accomodations were shut down, and indoor dining was prohibited. We ended up using an outdoor site at our venue and did our vows, exchanged rings, popped a bottle of champagne (and had mini bottles to go around for our guests), cut a cake, and did a first dance. We also had our professional photographer there and did a first look before the ceremony then some couples photos after. All in all we spent about 2 hours on site and dressed up and spent about an hour with our guests, but all of the ritual things we did took maybe 1/2 hour at most. We hope we can have a bigger ceremony and our reception there next year and do it the way we originally wanted to.

Totally feel you! We are in Washington state too and our venue cancelled on us due to the recent vague announcement by the governor. We are heartbroken.
In the last couple days we decided to have an outdoor smaller wedding on private property.
Best wishes to you in whatever you decide! You deserve to have your big day!!