Covid-19: Couples on edge as they scramble to make changes to disrupted wedding plans

• New round of changes to rules for wedding events are causing disruptions to the plans of couples again
• A bride-to-be who is getting married on Sunday said the task of changing arrangements was like putting out fires
• Other couples were having trouble getting in touch with wedding coordinators and vendors for refunds
• Most hotels had readily extended flexibility to wedding venue bookings, and said they would continue to do so

SINGAPORE — She is going to be a bride on Sunday (May 16). But instead of anticipating her big day, patient service associate Nithiya Kamala spent Friday fretting over plans that had been thrown up in the air again.

This was because the government task force tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, which announced 10 days ago that wedding receptions with more than 50 guests would require pre-event testing, had just announced that receptions will not be allowed after all from Sunday.

Weddings are among the activities and events that must be scaled down with tighter capacity caps from May 16 to June 13, as the authorities moved to limit social gatherings to two persons amid a rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the community in recent weeks.

When TODAY contacted her on Friday evening, the 31-year-old was clearly affected when she said: “I am under super stress right now. I am settling the fires around me.”

While she was coming to terms with having to make do without her wedding reception and banquet on Sunday, Ms Kamala was confused over whether her wedding venue would let her hold her solemnisation without the need to get her guests swabbed.

She was not consoled by the fact that Mr Lawrence Wong, co-chair of the taskforce, had spelt out that the Government is prepared to consider “a special arrangement” just for couples tying the knot on May 16 since this is a once in a lifetime event for them.

Mr Wong had said: “We are prepared to consider grandfathering arrangements for the wedding couples who have already made plans for Sunday. They can proceed, but we will require them to put in place pre-event testing for all their guests.”

She was already reluctant to put her guests through swab testing, as some of her relatives had already indicated that they would just skip her wedding altogether if they needed to be tested.

Meanwhile, her in-laws are upset that no food would be served, if indeed a reception proceeds, as they see it as being “disrespectful to the guests”, she said.

A 30-year-old IT consultant who only wanted to be known as Mr Wang is also on edge.

Mr Wang, who intended to host his solemnisation and wedding reception with his 30-year-old fiancée at Fullerton Hotel on May 22, will now have to cancel the reception, but he could not get in touch with many of the vendors they had hired for the event.

The hotel had been “very flexible” with the sudden changes and had promised to refund the balance for services that they did not manage to use.

But he was struggling to find out if he could get refunds for other services which they hired, such as photography, car rental, make-up and gown rental, if they were to call off the reception.

For instance, he had asked the car rental company for a refund for the S$500 that he had paid since he would no longer require the service.

But he said: “No reply. Call, no answer. Maybe, they are still trying to figure out a way to resolve this.”

Another bride-to-be Vennie Lam, 28, was already prepared to pay S$2,000 for the pre-event testing to clear the way for hosting 100 guests at her reception when she heard the news.

The executive, who works in the IT sector, is now trying to get in touch with her hotel coordinator to see if her wedding reception, which is currently scheduled for the last day of the upcoming restrictions, June 13, can be postponed, but she had not managed to reach him.

“The call didn’t go through. I think he is super busy,” she said.

This is making her feel unsettled. “Until we get any replies, we can’t actually do any planning with other vendors as well, or reach out to our guests,” she added.

MANY HOTELS EXTENDING FLEXIBILITY

Wedding venues which TODAY managed to reach on Friday said the latest round of measures are disappointing, but not unexpected. Most venues had readily extended flexibility to bookings, and said they would continue to do so.

Millennium Hotels and Resorts — the operator for a number of hotels including M Social Singapore and Grand Copthorne Waterfront — said that its team had started contacting wedding couples to extend full flexibility to postpone their wedding dates.

About 80 per cent of affected couples from across its hotels had asked to postpone their weddings, its spokesman said. “We will continue to work with couples on the best solutions and do what we can to support couples.”

Mr Christian Westbeld, managing director for Raffles Hotel Singapore, said the hotel “will continue to embrace full flexibility and coordinate individually with the wedding couples as we always have”.

“It is our firm belief to be an empathetic, thoughtful and professional partner as we go through the current situation together with our guests,” he added.

“This is especially important during these tumultuous times and hence, for weddings, cancellations will be handled with maximum care and sensitivity by offering fully refunded cancellations, penalty-free adjustments to attendance, change of venue or fully flexible postponements for weddings to be held at a later date.”

Mr Parveen Kumar, hotel manager at Grand Hyatt Singapore, said the hotel is offering “full support and complete flexibility” to all couples impacted by the latest advisory, including issuing full refunds for those who wish to withdraw the booking for their receptions altogether.

For those that are intending to continue with a wedding solemnisation larger than 50 people, and up to 100, its team of wedding planners will be ready to link them up with approved pre-event testing clinics so that their ceremony can still move ahead, he added.

Ms Cinn Tan, the chief sales and marketing officer of Pan Pacific Hotels Group, said its hotel teams are working with affected couples to “provide the best solution for postponement until a more appropriate time”.

For those preferring to proceed with just the solemnisation, without a reception, the teams “are working with them on the best alternative that will adhere to the current regulations”, she added.

Ms Olivia Tan, a senior planner at Watabe Wedding, which operates Chijmes Hall and Alcove at Caldwell House, said discussions are ongoing with its management team on how it would deal with cancellations and refunds.