Unravelling knotty issues

Making the experience as comfortable as possible for the attendees was priority.

"A sit-down reception wasn't an option," says Ip. "We wanted a setting where they could move around and come or leave whenever they wanted."

"If the hotel could cancel, I would wait until COVID-19 was over and we'd just do something in France. But given the situation, I just wanted to get it over and done with," she adds.

Luc Bollen, area director of Park Lane Hotels International and general manager of The Park Lane Hong Kong, a Pullman Hotel, says this new trend of split receptions is catching on.

"It's not uncommon to see a nine-month separation between the signing ceremony and/or an intimate, traditional family lunch or a big wedding party later on," he says, adding that his hotel saw a 65 percent drop in wedding revenue last year. Nearly half of the scheduled weddings were postponed.

"Weddings still went on in March and April; May and June were when everyone started postponing; but later in the year, people just basically said 'we're going to do this one way or another', especially if they'd chosen auspicious dates. That's when we had to really think out of the box to come up with alternatives," Bollen says.