Covid-19 Safety Measures

We know talking about Covid-19 and the pandemic could be a little tired and somehow overwhelming after so many months dealing with it, but in order to stay all on the same page, we put together the following Covid-19 safety measures based on the CDC and WHO recommendations. Safety should always be the #1 priority, keeping you, your family, guests, us, and all the people that will share this lovely celebration safe is a must.

General measures:

Venue & Government Rules:

The first measure is to comply with all venue and government rules. Besides all the safety measures we personally take, each venue might have different rules, in this case, it will be a good idea to ask them what are those rules and communicate it to all the people involved.

Sick Policy:

In this part, we’ll really need your help because it’s very important. Please acknowledge that you will observe a strict sick policy. This means that you will contact us as soon as you or anyone in your party tests positive for Covid-19 or feels ill within 14 days of the wedding, it is very important that whoever is coming to the weddings extreme safety measures at least 2 weeks before the wedding. If a guest is not feeling well or is showing symptoms of Covid-19, please let this person and whoever had close contact with to don’t show up at the wedding, we are sure they will totally understand, it is a bummer, we know, nobody wants this to happen but until everybody is vaccinated the best thing to do is to avoid close contact with sick people. If a guest that is sick show-up at the wedding, there is a big change this person will spread the virus, it will become a very dangerous situation, and the safety of your family, other guests, and vendors will be highly compromised. We all have family that could be at high risk and is our responsibility to keep them healthy, in our case, this also means that getting sick will affect other couples that count with us for their wedding the following weeks as same as we have to take care the weeks before yours to keep you safe. Covid-19 symptoms include but are not limited to: fever, cough, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, loss of smell/taste, digestive upset, etc, these symptoms may vary from one to another one but those are the most common. One way to make sure everybody is safe it’s to take a Covid-19 test no more than 72h before the wedding, this will give you a good chance that everybody attending is healthy and can interact more freely.  And finally, you also acknowledge that you will notify us if you come into contact with any known/suspected exposure to Covid-19 or exposure to anyone experiencing the symptoms listed above.

Vaccination & Covid testing:

This is a very polemic topic, we know and totally understand that some people is not open to get vaccinated because of several reasons or their believes, we totally respect that, however, we do recommend you to get fully vaccinated and to encourage your guest to do it at least a month before your travel just to be more safer during this amazing adventure, we also recommend you to get and encourage to get a Covid test at least 3 days before you travel so you will be sure that you and the rest of the guests are all Covid-free and can enjoy this incredible celebration in a pretty safe and normal way.

Our safety measures:

Wearing face masks and personal protective equipment (PPE):

During the wedding, we’ll be wearing a facemask and any other PPE required to keep everybody safe, especially in close spaces such as getting-ready rooms or any other space where we can’t keep social distancing and the airflow is limited.

Social distancing:

This is a key measure and one of the most important. Whenever possible, we’ll make sure there are at least 6 feet (2mts) between us and everyone else, you don’t have to worry, the photos will look equally the same and this will not affect at all how the wedding is documented. This isn’t always easy but is totally doable, and it’s the best advice in order to keep everybody safe.

Hand sanitizer:

We’ll wash our hands regularly with water and soap when it’s possible or with hand sanitizer if it’s not, it’s also a great idea to encourage everybody else to do the same.

How can you help:

There are a few things you can do that it’s going to make a lot of difference for the safety of everybody involved, for example:

Air flow:

Air flow is the key, in our experience this is what is going to make an entire differnece to have a great time safe, if you keep a good air flow within all your different locations you can be sure the risk of getting infected will be very low, keep in mind always to open doors and windows, turn on the fans, if it’s possible try to find places where you can have fresh air moving around the room and even better places with no walls. Avoid as much as you can close rooms. If it’s possible ask your planner to hire a few fans and place them around the areas so you can make sure the air flow will keep moving.

Getting Ready – Room Density:

This is a very important measure and makes a big difference to ensure your guests and our safety, at the same time require your help and total understanding. We know that having all your family and/or friends with you celebrating in your room while you are getting ready is a lovely idea, but at this time it’s dangerous and very risky especially in close & small rooms with no ventilation and/or windows to ensure good airflow. To keep everyone safe we encourage you to pick just a few people you really want to be there with you helping while you are getting ready, these can be for example your parents, or maid of honor /  best man, or so, but always having in mind that as more people are in the room with us the more dangerous it’s for everyone present (we included). Whenever it’s possible we will try to use outdoors for all kinds of group shots, so more people can join the photos, in many occasions there will be way more space and perhaps even better light for the shots.

Group Shots:

This isn’t so much a tip for your safety, but for everyone else’s safety. Remember that participation in group photos is always voluntary specially during the pandemic and in some cases could be restricted by the venue or government rules. We know this can be tricky but it’s part of how things are turning nowadays,. so, having that in mind, we recommend doing the group shots as follows: people coming from separate households can be photographed with social distancing in place (at least 1 meter when not facing each other), and people from the same household (bubbles) can be photographed together. A good idea to make this part much faster and safer is to just focus on small and intimate group shots like immediate family, the wedding party, etc, and having this shots taken outdoors, remember the key with all this is to keep the a good air flow.

Dining & Speeches:

Time to laugh.. and eat!!! this measure actually doesn’t change from what we normally do in non-pandemic times, our standard procedure is that while the guests are taking their dinner we will take our dinner in a separate room at the same time as them, this will ensure that by the time you and the guests are finished we will be done with our dinner too, we recommend that all speeches are scheduled to happen at the very beginning or at the very end of the dinner so we can be fully incorporated and be ready to capture them. So, you might be wondering, what this has to do with safety measures? and the answer is pretty simple, by the time of the dinner most (if not all) guests will not be wearing a facemask and will interact more, they will be talking to each other (perhaps even between tables), and there will be a lot of people seated in one single room having a good time, it actually sounds great and fun, but this can be risky for us especially if we move from one place to the other during that time and we can’t keep social distancing because the room size; to minimize this risk, once the dinner time starts we’ll step out of the room and snap a few lovely candid shots and ambient shots from the sides. 

Party time:

We love to party and get into the tribe!!! people singing, jumping and dancing are the best, but in most cases, during this pandemic, the “party time” is limited either by the venue or the governments, in case, there is a small “party time” we’ll try to avoid close contact or jump right in the middle of the dance floor for too long. We’ll catch the action from the sides and use longer lenses when possible. One tip that helps with this and makes it safer for everyone is to do your dance floor on open-air areas with lots of air.

No Hand Shaking, Hugs, or personal contact.

Our final measure but not least important is to avoid handshakes, hugs, or any other personal contact. Don’t get us wrong, we love handshakes, hugs, high fives, and everything related, but for your safety and your guests we’ll avoid all kinds of personal contact. We know.. it’s a bummer but it’s for the safety of all.

As you can see, we can pretty much handle all parts of the wedding very well, and with the help of everyone involved, we can make a lovely, wonderful, and safe wedding. 

We hope this information helps all of us to keep safe,  have a lovely time and an incredible experience at your wedding. Please, if you have any questions or concerns regarding something related to these measures don’t hesitate to let us know so we can help you out.