6 things that might never happen at weddings again in a post-coronavirus world

Wedding and event planner Laura Gardner, founder of Love, Laura, had already been noticing a growing trend of smaller, more personalized weddings before the pandemic.

"With the coronavirus, that's only going to remain a larger trend, to have a smaller, more intimate wedding that's centered around the couple, their people, and making it a celebration about them rather than this dog and pony show that weddings can turn into," she told Insider.

Dr. Sandra Kesh, an infectious disease specialist and deputy medical director at Westmed, thinks abandoning giant weddings is for the best from a public health standpoint.

"Having 200, or even 150, 100 guests — those days I really think should be a thing of the past," Kesh said. "It's very hard to put in place any sort of control over infections and spread of infections when you're trying to pack that volume of people into a confined space. Large weddings are probably going to become less desirable for most people."

Dancing in a crowd of strangers at a wedding may still be possible post-coronavirus, but it won't be as carefree.

"I don't know that you ban that, but you at least limit it," Kesh said. "People have to be aware that when you're dancing with someone you know and trust it's one thing, but then to have the free-for-all that happens in a wedding, especially when you add alcohol to the mix, the risk of exposure really goes up exponentially in those settings."

Wedding drinks may shift away from bartenders serving from large bottles to individual prepared glasses for people to take themselves.

"I think bars at weddings will probably change," said Leora Soleymani, founder and owner of Best Bride, a wedding-planning company based in Los Angeles, California, and a partner of Wedaways. "At bigger, corporate hotels, they usually open up a big bottle of Coke. Maybe there will be more individual bottles."

While there is no evidence the coronavirus is spread through food, buffets make social distancing difficult.

"As far as we know, you can't really ingest COVID, but whenever you have people congregating over a shared food source, whether it's a buffet or what have you, there's a lot of sharing the same utensils, people being in close space, so that's where the opportunity exists," Kesh said.

Family-style meals and grazing tables had been a growing wedding trend before the pandemic, but Gardner says they may not make a comeback.

"I think those are definitely going away for a while, even after corona is over," she said. "People are just going to be so much more conscientious of germs. I don't see somebody wanting to do a grazing table."

Future vendor contracts will likely incorporate the increased possibility of rescheduling a wedding.

"Some vendors have a stipulation that if you rebook for a date outside of six months, it's a new contract and you lose your deposit, but people didn't put that in when they were thinking about a pandemic," Gardner said. "I think even in post-corona times, we'll see new contracts. All of my couples are holding a second date. I think we'll probably continue to see some of that: people asking to do a soft hold on a future date if anything happens to their current date."

• Read more:
• 15 thoughtful gifts to cheer up friends whose weddings have been canceled or postponed
• Stop rescheduling your wedding for spring 2021 — the pandemic still won't be over
• A couple got married at home because of the coronavirus, and their entire neighborhood surprised them by celebrating from their cars