I had the pleasure of sitting in a zoom chat with venue personnel to discuss upcoming weddings, including challenges, procedures, and changes that will be made in light of COVID 19.   I was incredibly reassured on how proactive the venue’s are in working to get procedures in place to assist in the safety of their wedding couples and their wedding guests.

Joy Meyer, owner of  SoSerene Wedding Venue shared about her staff wearing masks, gloves, and placing extra hand sanitizer throughout the event space.

Todd Michael, owner of  Pretty Prairie Farm suggested creating an isolated seating chart, rather than let anyone choose their seat. A specific seating chart would place households together so that guests don’t sit with strangers.

Sarah Jackson, owner of the Loft at Combustion Brewery & Taproom suggested that plated meals and served meals, rather than buffet style would be helpful in keeping guests from multiple hands on service utensils as they self-serve.

Jaime Butcher with Nationwide Hotel & Conference Center offered similar sentiments when she suggested, rather than hosting hors d’oeuvre’s on a (help yourself) station, instead have them butler passed to the guests by single servers.   Jaime also offered great suggestions in case you need to have buffet rather than served meals.  Instead of each guests serving themselves, have a staff member(s) or Chef plate up the meals in the buffet to make the plates.  Another option for buffet would be to monitor to keep guests separated and served by households in order to maintain a little distance between guests.