Regina couple plans to go ahead with wedding in the COVID era

Getting married is one of the most important days in any couple’s life, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on the big day for many.

While many have decided to indefinitely postpone their weddings until the situation improves, one Regina couple is still going ahead with a limited celebration.

Andrew Hamilton and his fiancee, Amanda Mahoney, have scheduled their ceremony for Feb. 20.

By complete coincidence, that’s one day after the latest public health orders in Saskatchewan are to be updated.

While there is a possibility that measures could be tightened, loosened or kept the same, Hamilton isn’t banking on lifted rules to play a part in their ceremony.

“I think we’ll be pretty tight under the gun there. At this point, we have kind of come to terms with things. We’re just happy to be able to celebrate with (our) small, close family … the people that we’re allowed to,” he said.

“Obviously, there is a lot of extended family and friends, especially from out of province, that we would have loved to celebrate with, but it’s going to be a great day regardless.”

They had originally planned a ceremony with more than 200 guests last July, but COVID restrictions forced them to move it back. Now, they’re limited to just 30 people inside the church — including the wedding party.

“It has been tough. It’s something that you look forward to, obviously … It’s unfortunate, but at this point, we realize that this is a lot bigger than just the two of us. It’s a worldwide thing and we can only do our part by making sure that we follow the rules,” Hamilton said.

Those rules restrict the capacity inside the church and at the reception, make masks mandatory and ban serving any food or drinks. That led them to cancel the reception.

“(We’re just) going to do our small ceremony with our close family and friends, and then look to, maybe down the road, do a celebration of some sort,” Hamilton explained.

As for why they’re going ahead with the ceremony rather than seeing where restrictions go, he said they were tired of dealing with the uncertainty.

“It has kind of been a roller coaster,” he said. “We were hoping to do it last summer, and then obviously everything happened. It was kind of like, ‘We’ll play the waiting game and hope things get better.’ Unfortunately, they haven’t, but at this point we just want to go through with it and start to move forward.”