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Paper short abstract:

Covid forced re-assessment and re-evaluation of wedding plans. Couples chose between marrying at the planned time or delaying with the planned guests. This reinforced the importance of the marriage institution and of a public wedding.

Paper long abstract:

The arrival of the Covid 19 pandemic to the UK in 2020 caused social and personal upheaval on an unprecedented scale not seen since the Second World War. The life cycle rituals of birth, death and marriage were particularly affected. This paper will present the preliminary findings of my research into the attitudinal changes to marriage and the wedding brought about by the pandemic. Interviews conducted in 2021 with 8 British couples, whose wedding plans were severely disrupted by government restrictions around social distancing and travel, show that attitudes to the marriage ritual had to be re-assessed and re-evaluated. With the rules over how many could attend the wedding frequently changing, and at times being as few as five attendees, difficult decisions had to be made. The terms “marriage” and “wedding”, often previously used inter-changeably, now became distinct, as couples were forced to decide what was of greater importance to them as individuals, and as a couple; did they simply want to be married, regardless of how many or how few people could attend, or did they want to have the wedding that they had originally planned, and if so, were they willing to postpone until this could happen? In coming to these decisions, the couples were generally agreed that it had made them think more deeply about the institution of marriage, confirmed their desire to enter into that institution and had brought into sharp focus the importance of that being a public event, witnessed by family and close friends.