Unravelling knotty issues

Wedding planners and their clients found innovative ways of working round the challenges of hosting nuptials in the time of a pandemic. Joyce Yip reports.

When Kevin Cureau proposed to Stephanie Ip in late 2019, they had imagined the celebrations stretching from Hong Kong to Macon, France.

Instead, they found themselves signing a register at the Hong Kong City Hall in March 2020. The reception was held more than half-a-year later, after two postponements — downsized from the intended 200-pax sit-down dinner at the 1881 Heritage courtyard to a cocktail party split into three sessions in keeping with the local government's ruling to limit the number of guests to 40 people at a time. Close family arrived at 5 pm, work friends at 7 pm and others from 9 pm onward.

Cureau says although there weren't any restrictions on international travel in February, both local guests and his immediate family in France were wary about attending a wedding in Hong Kong.

"So we just pushed it back to end-May," says Cureau. "When the situation didn't improve later, it was postponed again, to November."

Since 1881 Heritage and their gown-rental vendor refused to refund their deposits, canceling the wedding wasn't an option. So as to not let the money spent on rentals go to waste, Ip went for two costume changes during the evening of her reception, which further shortened the rationed time she was allowed with each group of guests.