Weddings with up to 150 attendees will be allowed to resume in New York next week under new state rules, including COVID-19 testing requirements and strict dance floor guidelines. But wedding industry workers told Gothamist/WNYC that based on their experience this past year, they're skeptical all these rules will — or can — be enforced.
"We had a 50-person wedding on Long Island at an orchard on a private estate, so we were able to dance there," said Fallon Carter, a Harlem-based wedding planner.
"Also, a lot of our weddings are taking place at homes, so no one knows what we’re doing," she added. "Who’s around to tell us what we can and can’t do?"
For months now, the guidelines have stated that weddings anywhere in New York must be capped at 50 people; that individuals not from the same household must maintain six feet of distance; and that indoor dining service is not permitted.
In January, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that starting March 15th the number of attendees could expand to 150 (not including staff) or 50% of an indoor venue's capacity. His promise of marital bliss returning also specified that guests will have to sign in for contact tracing purposes. Mask-wearing will be required at all times, except when a guest is eating, drinking, or giving a speech. And all attendees, including staff, will have to present proof of a negative coronavirus test taken within 72 hours of the event, or proof of full vaccination.
The state's health department said it will be incumbent on the venue or host to check for negative test results, and that local health departments will be responsible for enforcement, which could include inspections and fines for violations.
Multiple vendors who've been working at weddings for most of the pandemic said it's been up to venues or private hosts to decide what rules to enforce, and how.
"There’s not a department of health agent strolling around the boathouse," she Halley Chambers, the deputy director of The Oberon Group, which handles catered events at the Prospect Park Boathouse.
"It’s a lack of really stringent direction from the government itself that has led to a lot of confusion — and probably led to these events that we’ve seen turn into super-spreader events," said Chambers.
She added that the Prospect Park Boathouse — a popular venue that’s mostly booked through the summer ("If you want to get married on a Tuesday or Wednesday you could") — made its own decision to forbid dancing and buffet-style dining, and thus far hasn’t allowed indoor weddings.
Multiple wedding professionals who spoke to Gothamist said that while New York City has kept a tighter squeeze on weddings, others states have been allowing large weddings to go on (e.g. Miami allowed 100-person weddings to resume last September), causing more confusion in the industry. And because many vendors are private contractors or freelancers who hadn't been able to qualify for unemployment or other pandemic-related assistance, they've had to decide for themselves what qualifies as a safe enough situation.
"If there’s a way I can do my job and succeed at it, then I’m going to have to go there and do it," said Fallon Carter, the wedding planner. "I have a 200-person wedding in a couple of months in a place outside of New York, and it’s the most money I’ve ever made in my life. I’m happy I’m able to make it happen — I’m wearing triple masks."
Guests attend a pandemic wedding in Mystic, Connecticut, where 100-person outdoor weddings were allowed last summer.
Other vendors said that given the current spread of COVID-19 variants and their skepticism of how enforcement is going to work, they're holding off on working big weddings, despite Cuomo's announcement.
"I’m just not that comfortable being around that many people in a confined space," said Melissa Wahler, a New Jersey-based photographer who said she recently turned down an inquiry for a 130-person wedding in April.
Wahler, who's been shooting elopements and "micro-weddings" for much of the past year, said she misses the atmosphere of larger gatherings and being "surrounded by all these people who are having the best day of their lives."
"I just don’t think that I would risk my health over work that I miss doing," she said.
Max Pittman, a Brooklyn-based photographer, said that on top of the state's requirement to have all guests get PCR tests in the days before a wedding, she recommends that couples provide on-site rapid testing the day of the event.
"There’s plenty of places you can contract COVID in the three days in between," she said.
But Pittman — who said she's holding off on working large weddings until the fall — also expressed skepticism that the health and safety guidelines can truly co-exist with the spirit of a wedding.
"I understand when people take their masks off — weddings are place to have a celebration," she said. "But I’ve been at weddings where grandparents and the elderly — people who clearly care about this couple — are sitting in the corner of a tent watching people dance and yell in each other’s faces, and it’s just so strange."
Of the newly-released guidelines for 150-person weddings, the new dance floor rules may be the hardest to enforce. According to the state, everyone on the dance floor will have to remain within a 36-square-foot dance zone with other members of their immediate party. Zones will need to stay six feet apart from each other. Switching zones won't be allowed. And mask-wearing will be required the whole time.
Tyler Vandenberg, a New Jersey-based wedding DJ who has two weddings booked for New York City this summer, said these kinds of restrictions put him in a lose-lose situation.
"If you try and just follow a strict protocol of, 'you can only do this or only do that,' you’re failing as a DJ — and you’re upsetting the couple," he said. "But if you’re making them happy — and you want them to be able to enjoy something after all this — you’re failing on the regulation side."
