To think attending this wedding is a bad idea

[frillyfarmer]

Friends' wedding was postponed in May due to Covid, rearranged for end October.

I'd just sort of assumed with the general shitstorm of Covid, and with the laws surrounding gatherings of more than 30 people, this would be postponed again, but we received an email today confirming they are still going ahead.

The church service will be just them and immediate family, as per the rules. The reception is to be held privately (they're landowners) for 160 people. All of our friends are going - they're really looking forwards to a good kick back and a party after months of us not seeing one another.

I feel like we will be missing out on all the fun but I just don't think I can feel comfortable breaking the rules like that, especially considering the fines for attending illegal gatherings.

My husband has said he is happy to either go or not go depending on what I think. We are low risk, healthy in our 30s leading very isolated lifestyle by design as we're farmers. I'm a SAHM to two preschool aged children. My biggest concern is ending up on the front of the daily mail like the house parties in Manchester...

Would you go?

No, I wouldn't, unless there is a significant rule change before that (which I doubt tbh). Not only is the number too great, it's indoors (does a marquee count as indoors?) and against the current rules.

[quote Manolin]@Longwhiskers14

What this new law seems to do is bring both the premises owner and the organiser into the scope of the fine. It also removes attendees - something that was not previously made clear. Otherwise, as far as I can see a gathering on private land, not a dwelling/garden etc, and not public outdoor space, is still legal. The new rules do not seem to affect that. Crazy as it seems![/quote]
It IS confusing! That said, in one report about the new legislation, Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said in cases where a gathering was in a warehouse or field where an owner could be identified, the police would definitely act on it. Which would apply with this wedding, with the bride and groom being the landowners.

But hey-ho, not my circus. The rules/advice/"law" clearly states gatherings over 30 shouldn't happen to minimise the spread of infection in the community, so for that reason alone I don't think I would risk going.

Even if it was legal I wouldn't go.

I have my own personal risk assessment on where I'll go and people I'll meet depending on multiple factors.

This fails my criteria

This thread is totally going to end up in the daily mail and then there won’t be a wedding op

So I wouldn’t worry about buying a hat

@Allmyarseandpeggymartin

This thread is totally going to end up in the daily mail and then there won’t be a wedding op

So I wouldn’t worry about buying a hat

Yep, with a note saying the the DM will pay for tip-offs for any weddings like this that the readers know of.

@DancingCatGif

"Well young people are expected to go to school in 'bubbles' of 260, and teachers to teach multiple 'bubbles' of 260 and apparently this is all perfectly fine so I'm surprised so many people are saying no don't go it's too dangerous."

It is necessary to go to school.

It is not necessary to go to a wedding.

I'm not sure why this is hard to understand.

It reminds me of those threads where people justify piercing their babies' ears because "vaccines are painful for babies as well". Vaccines are for health reasons!

No way. When people have had a few drinks social distancing will go out the window. It’s gatherings like this that could cause another outbreak.

Not a chance. I’d also be seriously rethinking my friendship with the B&G given the risks this involves for not just attendees but everyone after they come into contact with.

I'd not be going.

If the wedding is in the guidelines and family only but you are friends,are you invited to the ceremony and the party or just the party?
If it's no distance and you are invited to the actual wedding can you go to that then go home?

How are there still so many people determined to find loopholes in the advice/laws? Morally, how can you justify the 'but I want, me me me, sod the rest of you' selfishness of trying to work around the facts instead of being a decent person who wants to do what they can to reduce spread?

I highly doubt the wedding will go ahead OP and I'd have no issues with reporting them/forwarding on the email to the police now. Idiots.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

For me it would depend on what sort of risk I specifically would be - to myself and others.

I have no vulnerable friends/relatives. I work from home. I don't use public transport. I get my shopping delivered. I am not vulnerable myself.

If I got it, id probably be fine. Same as flu or pneumonia. If I got it I wouldn't spread it far.

But that's not how pandemics work! If it didn't spread beyond a person's immediate circle, it never would have turned into a pandemic in the first place. You could infect someone who infects two individuals, and they in turn could infect two individuals each, and so on...

Regardless if illegal or not, because its on private land.

Its the moral of it. 160 people is selfish and the bride and groom are twats.

People havent seen there families for months,
Relatives unable to visit care homes, NHS staff working their arses off, patients who were due operations cancelled, people dying because they haven't been able to have the treatment they needed, people avoiding hospitals when they needed it, people dying alone!!!

And your friends, Just think
'fuck it'

Them.
You.
All guests

Selfish selfish twats!!!!!

It would be a no from me.

It sounds as if you won't be going. I'm definitely not overly cautious, but I wouldn't go either.

It's definitely the booze element which I think means people might not bother with social distancing. That, as well as there being nobody 'official' around to remind people to keep their distance etc, as it's on private land etc.

We have been to a few things on days out where there have been a lot of people, outdoors, in the same area, but they have managed it really carefully and done a good job of sanitizing everything between uses and enforcing social distancing. None of that will happen if they're doing it illegally?

Just out of interest, I wonder who is going to serve the food and drinks to all those people? Or have they got a catering company who are willing to do it? Just, as the op was saying, no venue would ever allow it, I'm surprised a catering company would do it. But then, a venue might get closed down or fined, whereas a catering company won't?

I personally wouldn't go. This pandemic has left a scar on our country. I work on a bereavement helpline - you can imagine the stories I have heard over the past few months. It isn't just people who have lost someone to Covid, but anyone who lost someone during the lockdown (and wasn't allowed into the hospital to say goodbye). Those left behind are in such pain. We need to abide by the Government's guidelines to ensure we do not get into the situation where we are in lockdown again. There has to be a joint effort to contain the virus this winter

I think a lot of fines will be dished out this weekend.

160 chances of catching Covid from drunk people. No thank you and I'm not a stay enclosed type of person.

@HoldMyLobster

Someone already linked to the early August wedding in Maine that has so far caused 85 infections, one death (a woman who did not go to the wedding), and Covid breakouts in a nursing home and in a jail.

The wedding was in a very rural area, in a town that had had zero cases up to that point. No one from out of state attended the wedding, and most guests were from equally rural, unaffected areas.

The local hospital has had to close to everything but emergencies. The local school closed today because of 6 cases there.

Of the 65 people at the wedding, over half are infected, most of those are symptomatic, and they are as young as 4.

So, 33 infected who went to the wedding, 52 infected who did not go to the wedding.

I'd imagine it's the first time the town of Millinocket has made international news.

To answer your question, no I wouldn't go to a wedding like that OP.

When I posted this 2 days ago there were 85 total infections as a result of the wedding.

Today there are 123 infections, including 9 cases in a nursing home, and 56 cases in a jail.

Forgot to mention, the jail is 240 miles from the location of the original wedding - all it took was one person going to the wedding to bring it back.

I’d go. It sounds great and no different to going to the pub.

Not a chance. A large gathering has the potential to become a superspreader event. A conference in the US in February is thought to be responsible for 20,000 cases.

Nah. Weddings are tedious as fuck in normal times, but choosing to go and be indoors (marquee?) with 160 other people is one of the best ways to catch the virus apart from like, licking inside someone’s nostrils. You’d be exposed to all those people, and therefore everyone they have been around recently-schools, holidays, planes, cafes, etc. and for what? Scummy of them to even be putting so many people at risk for their own self indulgence anyway.

It's the same as going to a pub, go and enjoy

@kazillionaire

Not really because at a wedding, you mingle about talking to groups of people. In the pub, you might talk to one or two, but not really 100.