Despite Texas ban on gatherings, weddings can take place at 50% capacity
Weddings are exempt from many of the restrictions, as long as they follow certain other guidelines.
AUSTIN (Texas) — By the first of the year, Chelsea Chan and her fiance had their entire wedding planned. They’d picked a date in August of 2020, chosen a special venue and signed all the contracts.
“We were just kind of sitting pretty, waiting for our wedding to come,” she said.
Then, coronavirus changed everything.
“Right away, we were really concerned,” Chan said. “We are having a large wedding. It’s 200 people. I think the majority of people are from out of town.”
It was a tough decision, but ultimately the couple moved their event to 2021.
“This year is just not the right year,” Chan said, noting that she feels lucky all of her vendors were able and willing to rearrange their schedules for their new date.
That’s not the case for every couple.
Last week, Governor Greg Abbott instituted a mask mandate for people in public and a ban on outdoor gatherings over 10 people. Austin-Travis County leaders followed with their own local orders soon after.
In both cases, though, weddings are exempt from many of the restrictions, as long as they follow certain other guidelines.
The Governor’s office released a checklist for wedding guests and a checklist for wedding venues, with guidance including:
- Outdoor venues should be used when possible
- Weddings held inside a facility other than a church are limited to 50% of the total listed occupancy of the facility
- Employees and contractors of the wedding venue are not counted towards the 50% occupancy limitation
- All employees and customers must wear a face covering (over the nose and mouth) wherever it is not feasible to maintain six feet of social distancing from another individual not in the same household
However, a KXAN viewer reached out with concerns about a family member forging ahead with a July wedding.
“They are following through with all of that because they haven’t been told otherwise,” she said.
While couples with events planned for the spring had to move or cancel their events altogether, under stay-at-home orders, this viewer worries her family member “didn’t have much of a choice” other than to move forward — because of the exemption.
“How do you handle all the vendors and issues that were signed, sealed, dated, sometimes over a year ago?” she said. “It’s an event that consists of several hundred people coming from all over the United States — flying in, driving in.”
She said she understands it’s her choice to come, as a guest, but wished the state or local guidelines were more clear. She’s asking: “What is a ‘recommendation’ or what is a ‘requirement?'”
She gave one example: “The bride was told only the employees at the venue have to wear masks, since the event is outside.”
KXAN’s Avery Travis will have more from experts in the wedding industry and a closer look at the guidelines, coming up tonight on KXAN News at 10 p.m.