So what is like to get married during global pandemic?

It’s fun. It’s intimate. It’s all about the two of you and your love. It’s all about your commitment to each other. It’s beautiful.

From the photographer’s point of view these weddings are so cool. We finally have almost unlimited time for bride and grooms portraits, freedom to create whatever we like, there is no chance that we miss a photo of any of your key guests, there is time for almost everything.

However I really wanted to know what is like to get married during pandemic from the couple perspective?

I’ve been fortunate enough to shoot some beautiful micro weddings this year. The original weddings plans were completely different for all of those couples despite the tough social distancing restrictions they’ve decided to get married this year. Why?

I decided to ask them a few questions to find out.

Harriet & Tom

1. What was your original wedding plan?

We planned a country wedding for 120 guests at a hall in Salisbury, followed by a knees-up at my parents house.

2. Why have you decided to get married this year?

We decided we were fed up of the uncertainty and just wanted to get married to each other and get on with the rest of our lives! The more we thought about it, the more realised that we could still have an amazing day, even if it's not what we originally planned. We always wanted to get married surrounded by as may family and friends as we could - which we did - it was just a lot fewer than we thought originally!

3. Tell me about your micro wedding?

We got married at a country house in Dorset and still had the knees up at Harriet's parents house with 30 guests. We had immediate family and the wedding party and managed to keep most of our original suppliers. It was a magical day - I think everyone was really up for a party!

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding?

The biggest challenge was constantly having to change our plans - the worst moment was having to uninvited our friends. But as each part fell back into place, we felt more and more encouraged to carry on. And actually, planning for a smaller wedding allowed us to try things we couldn't have done before, and took a lot of stress off the logistics of the day.

5. What was your favourite moment of the day?

Seeing our friends and family in tears after we did our vows! Because we had a smaller wedding party, we were able to have our guests sat around us in a circle, so everyone felt more involved in the ceremony itself.

6. Are you still planning to have a bigger wedding celebration in the future?

When we can plan something definite, we are going to have a vow renewal with all our friends.

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

Just do it! The intimacy of a small wedding means everyone feels very involved and you can spend quality time with all your guests on the day. It was the best day of our lives, because we were surrounded by the love of our nearest and dearest.

Katherine & Mike

1. What was your original wedding plan?

It should have been a church wedding ceremony at Tollard Royal and then reception at Larmer Tree Gardens,, 90+ guests (coming from not only across the UK but also Amercia, N.Ireland, Sweden and Australia), a jazz band, reception drinks and canapés, a DJ, a 3 course wedding breakfast, lots of flowers and bespoke dresses and suits!

2. Why have you decided to get married this year?

We decided early on when lockdown happened that if we could still go ahead and get married on our original August date, we definitely would. We wanted to try and go ahead so we were officially married - as we didn’t know when we would be able to go ahead with our original plans the focus became more on just becoming husband and wife. The date also had a quirky significance on my side of the family! We were really happy and also quite surprised when the government allowed weddings to start again with 30 guests as it was more than we thought would be possible.

3. Tell me about your micro wedding?

We had 25 guests (as you have to count yourselves, the two registras and photographer in your 30 limit!) and we got married at The Larmer Tree Gardens our original reception venue just outside of Wiltshire. There wasn’t enough time to get our bands read to get married in the nearby church, we only just made it with 1 day to spare to give our marriage notice. Katy our wedding coordinator at Larmer Tree was so accommodating, helpful and (possible the most important!) calm throughout our planning. I couldn’t recommend them more as a venue! We had a small ceremony outside which was touch and go due to the impending thunderstorms after the August heatwave. But as we did manage to get married outside it meant none of the guests had to wear masks, so hopefully looking back at our wedding photos you can't tell we were married mid pandemic! Mike wore a tailored suit from Hackett, he had created a bespoke suit with them but it was stuck in transit due to the pandemic. They were great and provided him with a lovely alternative. I wore a ASOS wedding dress I had panic bought a month or so earlier, I was also due to have a bespoke dress made but the studio closed during lockdown so I was buying every white dress I could find online during early summer just so I had something to wear if we could go ahead. One of my best friends and bridesmaids is starting out with her own floral design company Spark and Bloom and very kindly offered to help with the flowers, which were all British sourced and so beautiful. I made the wedding cake myself which looked like a bit of a disaster until my bridesmaid/florist saved the day it icing. After our ceremony we had our guests back to our garden for a toast of champagne as we were allowed to have a formal wedding reception - it was surreal having the celebration at home, but I wouldn’t change a thing about the day now looking back. We even managed a first dance on our lawn.

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding?

The uncertainty of if the rules would change again before the big day took place. Wedding receptions were going to be allowed in time for our date, but then they were halted shortly before. The weather was also stressful and outside of our control really wanting to get married outside!

5. What was your favourite moment of the day?

We both struggle to pick just one, we both have so many great moments! For Katherine, the anticipation once I arrived at the Larmer Tree and was about to walk down the aisle - nothing could stop the wedding now! For Mike the feeling just after we were officially married and were walking back down the aisle together with Florence and the Machine, you've got the love playing.

6. Are you still planning to have a bigger wedding celebration in the future?

Yes we would like to celebrate with those that weren’t able to make the wedding, but not sure what or when we will plan something!

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

To 100% go ahead, having a small intimate wedding in these crazy times was a really nice celebration and something to look forward to, it was so lovely to get together with our guests and celebrate getting married. Having such a small wedding without a big reception really put the focus for us on the reasons we were getting married to each other. You can always then still plan the big party afterwards!

Julia & Adam

1. What was your original wedding plan?

May 2020: Chelsea Old Town Hall for the ceremony followed by reception at Loft Studios - drinks, food, ceilidh and DJ until late for 130 people.

2. Why have you decided to get married this year?

We are both doctors and spent our would-have-been wedding day working....We really needed something to look forward to and decided we'd get married this year - no matter how small the ceremony would be. It wasn't a particularly difficult decision for either of us - we'd never really wanted a big wedding, but got carried away with the planning. It was important to us to just get married and have at least our closest friends to mark the day with.

3. Tell me about your micro wedding?

We spent the day before rearranging furniture, doing multiple Majestic Wines runs and decorating our flat. On the day we had a lie in, ran a few last errands and met our best friends for lunch/to get ready. We met our friends and families at The Sydney Arms Pub late afternoon, drank a few glasses of prosecco and walked up the road to Chelsea Old Town Hall for our very intimate (16 guests) wedding ceremony. Our parents stayed in town to have dinner together, while we went back to our home to celebrate with our friends. Everyone had a role - Starting with one of the bridesmaids doing the make-up, our friend Sarah took control as the wedding planner, Julia's brother Jac supplied the party with Fanny's kebabs, one of our best friends Abi baked a stunning 3 tiered cake, our friend Al took over from Dom as the after hours photographer, Tomek was in charge of ensure everyone's wodka glasses were topped up, Adam (the groom) was the DJ...The list goes on.

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding?

The obvious - cutting down the guest-list from 130 to Less than 30 friends and family, but everyone was so kind and understanding - they knew this was out of our hands

5. What was your favourite moment of the day?

The whole day was so perfect and so special it's difficult to choose a single moment... but itt would have to be saying I do and knowing we were about to have the best house party of our lives to celebrate.

6. Are you still planning to have a bigger wedding celebration in the future?

This is a very difficult decision, but probably not... We've had our day and we loved every moment.

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

If even the smallest part of you wishes you could have a (relatively) stress-free, intimate and low-key wedding, you will not regret having a micro wedding!

Vas & Sam

1. What was your original wedding plan?

• Original venue: The Ned

• Theme: 1920s glamour

• Number of guests: 120

A much larger/grander event which now seems a world away from our lovely day!

2. Why have you decided to get married this year? 

Because love wins! We thought about waiting until next year but we really weren’t sure that the situation would be much better. We decided 2020 was still our year and went for it anyway with our closest friends and family – it turned out to be the most amazing day!

3. Tell me about your micro wedding? (location, number of guests, theme, have you used your original suppliers, etc) 

We had a very small ceremony at The Old Marylebone Townhall with all of our guests waiting outside to throw confetti. We arranged for a cream London bus to pick us up from the Townhall and take us on a tour of London with music and bubbles on board! We were dropped off at a small local restaurant which we hired and had beautifully decorated with flowers and candles.

We used all of our original suppliers (Dom as photographer, Megan from Blossom & Crumb with the cake) apart from our band which we were unable to use for obvious reasons. We also used a couple of additional suppliers as our day had changed quite significantly from the original plan – our cream bus was from London Retro Bus and our gorgeous flowers/decorations (including the bouquet and buttonhole) were designed by the very talented Amy at Ivy & Gold studio.

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding? 

A couple of challenges: The ever-changing rules... this was indeed the third time (!) we had organised our wedding as we encountered another rule change just a couple weeks before our wedding. They do say third time lucky... And of course not being able to have every single person we ever wanted there.

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

We were incredibly unsure going into this with really no idea how it would turn out – and it was genuinely the most amazing day! We couldn’t imagine a better day with our closest loved ones and felt that this was much more personal to us as a couple. No regrets!

Hui & Andrey

1. What was your original wedding plan?

Chateau in Nice, France with 120 guests

2. Why have you decided to get married this year?

We were going to have our civil ceremony in London anyway, and decided to go ahead with that. Once our original wedding was cancelled we decided to make it a bigger affair than we would have done...from there on, it just snowballed! You realise life's too short to keep waiting, and our guests really appreciated having something to celebrate!

3. Tell me about your micro wedding?

We had our ceremony at Marylebone Town Hall followed by a small lunch at Carousel (originally 30 guests but later split into 2x15)

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding?

Lack of family around (our families are abroad and could not travel)

5. What was your favourite moment of the day?

Saying I do! :)

6. Are you still planning to have a bigger wedding celebration in the future?

Absolutely!

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

Do what you can, when you can - the way things are looking we are going to get to celebrate our wedding multiple times which may end up better anyway! :)

Monika & Chet

1. What was your original wedding plan?

- Original wedding date - 19th April 2020

- 2nd wedding date - 11th October 2020

- Actual wedding date - 27th September 2020 (changed following Boris' announcement on 22nd September which meant a reduction of guest numbers from 30 to 15 guests to be put in place on 1st October)

2. Why have you decided to get married this year?

We had already postponed until later in the year. Given the uncertainty of covid which would have kept leading to us postponing our wedding date, we were both keen to start our lives together properly. We wanted to have our religious and civil ceremony this year and not have to keep social distancing away from each other as we were living in different households before marriage.

3. Tell me about your micro wedding?

• No of guests = 24 guests (+ 1 priest, 1 photographer, 1 videographer, 1 DJ and the bride and groom)

• Location = Sattavis Patidar Centre, J/W, Forty Avenue, The Avenue, Wembley Park, Wembley HA9 9PE

• Theme = traditional Hindu wedding

All original suppliers were used with the exception of the priest who was unavailable. An alternative priest was found 2 days before the wedding

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding?

Coordinating between suppliers in a short amount of time (4 days!)

5. What was your favourite moment of the day?

Lunchtime! The traditional games and our photoshoot in the park (despite the cold weather!)

6. Are you still planning to have a bigger wedding celebration in the future?

No

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

Regardless of the circumstances, your day will still be special and with a smaller wedding you have the freedom to make it your own a bit more as you have more time to play with on the day. We were happy we could have our wedding and move on with the next chapter of our lives together.

Marta & Tom

What was your original wedding plan?

Our original plan was to have a civil ceremony followed by a big party in Poland where Marta is from. We were planning to invite both of our families and a lot of friends, so the wedding would have been a wonderful mixture of cultures, ages and languages. We planned for the reception to take place in a hotel, where the two of us and our 80 guests were meant to celebrate our wedding while eating, drinking, playing games and dancing until the early hours of the morning. We were very much looking forward to this event and had everything planned for it up to the smallest details (including the best man's cufflinks!).

2. Why have you decided to get married this year?

Due to the pandemic we were forced to postpone our wedding several times, as we were hoping that the right time for the wedding would finally come...but it never did! And yet, we were still very eager to pursue our dream wedding and a vision of it that we carried in our hearts for so long.

Eventually, after many lost months in lockdown, we realised that we did not really wish to postpone our wedding day any longer. As much as we wanted to have a ceremony followed by a big party we decided to separate the two events and get married first. We felt that putting our lives on hold in order to have a perfect day was not something that we were willing to do any longer and that having a day simply to celebrate our love would bring a flicker of light and hope into this difficult time that we are all living in. 

This was not an easy decision for us to make, but ultimately we accepted what we could not have and as it turned out, all that we could have was enough and just as beautiful. Writing these words and looking back at our micro wedding we now realise that we would not have had it any other way.

3. Tell me about your micro wedding?

The ceremony took place in our local registry office in a beautiful, listed building and the celebrations afterwards were in a nearby park on the Thames. This is where, together with our few close friends and Dominika, who photographed every special moment, we had a lovely celebratory picnic. We experienced everything there was to experience: we cut the cake, we performed our first dance and had our first toast. Everything was joyful, relaxed, effortless and not at all planned and yet, thanks to our dear friends everything turned out exactly right.

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding? 

The biggest challenge for us was probably accepting that our families could not attend the ceremony in person due to the pandemic. However, through the power of technology and Zoom we found a way for them to join in, and to cheer us on and toast us from the comfort of their homes. It might sound strange, but with the wedding being broadcast in this way it really did feel as if they were fully participating in the event. 

5. What was your favourite moment of the day?

Marta's favourite moment of the day was the moment of exchanging vows and rings with Tom. It was a beautiful and a very moving moment.

Tom's favourite moment of the day was kissing his beautiful wife (Marta!) for the first time in front of everyone.

6. Are you still planning to have a bigger wedding celebration in the future?

We are planning a bigger wedding reception for next year. Hopefully this time we will be able to properly celebrate and have fun, but for now it is something that we will patiently look forward to, as one does for one's birthday. For now, we want to concentrate on enjoying our new happiness together. 

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

To all of you who are still wondering if you should postpone your wedding or have it now we would advise you to think about what is truly important to you and go from there. You may be surprised how little you might need to make your wedding day really special. 

Narcy & Faran

1. What was your original wedding plan?

The original plan was to do our wedding in Istanbul, Turkey, a traditional Iranian ceremony with around 60 guests.

2. Why have you decided to get married this year?

We had already postponed our wedding date twice and Faran was adamant after first lockdown that we should get married before the year was out. Also we realised there would not be a perfect time by postponing our plans, so we decided to do it at the first practical opportunity.

3. Tell me about your micro wedding?

We planned our micro wedding within a month. Venue and suppliers were all decided after intensive searching for days. We wanted a intimate ceremony with only close friends and family yet we wanted all the elements of a wedding to be present.

4. What was the biggest challenge organising your small wedding?

Finding the right venue.

5. What was your favourite moment of the day?

Exchanging the Vows.

6. Are you still planning to have a bigger wedding celebration in the future?

Yes! We are planning to celebrate our marriage in our traditional way with more of our friends and families along with music and dancing.

7. What would you say to other couples who are still unsure if they want to have a micro wedding?

To go for it without any hesitation. You don’t know what can happen tomorrow. Micro wedding has its own special magic.

I would love to thank all my amazing couples for answering my questions! You are all amazing!!

I know there is still lots of couples trying to decide on their wedding day. If you’re planning a micro wedding and still looking for a photographer. I hear you!! I am currently offering last minute mini wedding package. Please feel free to get in touch!

Let’s hope that the new vaccine will kick off early next year so we can back to our normal lives!

Stay safe,

Dom xx