As of this morning, there is a new timeline for the rollout of COVID vaccines in Oregon. We’ve been waiting for this news for weeks because, until today, the public-facing rollout in Oregon of COVID vaccines stopped at age 65.
Read this article from The Oregonian for those details. Keep reading this article for how this news may impact weddings in Oregon.
Does this mean I can have my summer 2021 wedding in Oregon now without worrying about COVID?
No, this is not what this means.
The latest information says that the general population of Oregon can get the vaccine starting July 1. This means that for June, July, August, and potentially September and October 2021 weddings in Oregon, there is a very high chance that your guests and your vendors will not be fully vaccinated* by the time of your wedding.
There is an even higher chance that they will not be fully vaccinated* by the time you actually need to decide your 2021 wedding plans, i.e. not your wedding day but actually 60 days before your wedding day.
I’ve previously explained why I recommend that 60-days deadline so strongly but TLDR: It will save you money. It will save you heartache. It will save you stress.
*Note: “Fully vaccinated” here means both doses and the “few weeks” the most recent information provided by the CDC says it takes your body to build immunity after vaccination.
So what’s a 2021 couple to do?
Keep doing what we’ve all been doing for nearly a year: Plan for the worst, but hope for the best.
When it comes to a 2021 wedding, this means please consider seriously reducing your guest count. This does not mean lower to just the legal limits. “Seriously reducing your guest count” means to 10 or 20 people (the number I hear most often from couples and other vendors as being “the sweet spot” during COVID) or, in this new world, to only the vaccinated. Here are free templates for how to start these conversations.
In addition to reducing your guest count, please avoid cross-state travel all together unless you and/or your guests are willing to quarantine for at least seven days per the current travel advisory in place for Oregon. A fellow vendor asked me if the travel advisory will change as more people get vaccinated. I assume “yes” since we didn’t have travel advisories like this before COVID but when will it change? Your guess is as good as mine and I think we both know the answer is “not soon.”
As for the actual wedding day, you know the deal: Stay outdoors. Require masks at all times. Keep six feet away. Require testing. Combine testing with quarantine to actually make it most effective.
Do not do these things because you have to do them. Do them because they are the best way you can start your marriage in a place of joy during a global pandemic.
If you do not want to do these things, please move to 2022. Doing so is, of course, no guarantee but it seems much more likely to me that you will be able to have a pre-pandemic style wedding next year than you will this year. Still need to get legally married this year? You can do that. It takes five people in Oregon.
Please remember your vendors
There is a real thing happening right now at weddings where all the guests feel safe enough to unmask and touch because they all know each other (or, if they’re being really smart, tested and quarantined before attending in-person).
But the vendors? The people you as a couple hired to work at your wedding? They don’t have the same luxury. They couldn’t take a COVID test and stay in their house for at least a week because they had other weddings to work so they could make rent. They don’t know your mom and while you trust your mom, your photographer still has to go home at the end of the night and hope she didn’t just infect her husband.
So communicate with your vendors. Create a COVID safety policy for your wedding. Share it with the people you’ve hired. Talk to to them about what you’re doing to prioritize the health and safety of everyone you are asking to be in-person at your wedding, not just your guests.
Should you ask your wedding guests and vendors if they have been vaccinated or will be getting a vaccine when they are eligible?
For guests, yes. Ask. Here are free templates for how to start these conversations.
For vendors, I still say yes. Ask. But I want to offer a little context here because I’ve stated this opinion a few times recently and gotten a couple questions from vendors about it. Notably, a wedding planner told me she thought it would be a violation of HIPAA for a couple to ask a vendor if they were vaccinated.
I researched the HIPAA question this morning and to the best of my understanding, what that planner told me was wrong. HIPAA is specifically about the exchange of information between health organizations, not between individuals and non-medical businesses.
That said, I want to address the intent of the planner’s question: “Is it OK for me — a person planning a wedding — to ask a wedding vendor if they are vaccinated?”
In my opinion, yes, you can ask. You must ask with empathy and you must hear people out if they give you an answer you don’t want to hear or decline to answer your question but you can ask. I have a free template for how to start this conversation with a vendor under the section “What about wedding vendors?” on this article.
“Do I really have to do this?”
I feel it is so important to ask these questions because honestly, I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this mess if we don’t start talking to each other.
I’m writing this in February 2021 on the same day that my state released a plan to vaccinate people under the age of 65. Based on the trajectory of these things, a lot is going to change very quickly, which means in a week or two weeks or maybe a month, there may be whole new social protocols (or even government laws) that help guide us through these uncharted waters but until then, talk.
Because really, what’s the alternative? You and your partner host a wedding where you think certain safety rules you set in place are being followed but you’re not sure? That sounds like a very easy way for both people to get sick and for you to have a wedding day that you regret.