Lots of couples have been forced to postpone their wedding days due to the current pandemic and restrictions that have been put in place around the world which can be overwhelming for people to cope with. Before this all started you had your date set and you were looking forward to a lifetime of happiness with your partner, but now with all the uncertainty around weddings it is understandable that you might be feeling anxious and not as excited as you once were. This is completely normal but the main thing to remember is that you will still get married, and although it may not be on the day that you originally planned, it will be soon. You may have to be flexible and adapt some of your plans, but this can sometimes be a positive thing. We have put together a practical guide for pandemic grooms; we know that sometimes the focus is on the bride so today we wanted to focus our attention on the grooms!
Firstly congratulations if you have recently got engaged! Now it’s time to start planning for your dream wedding day and you’ll want to do this together and make those all important decisions together too. There is a lot to think about when planning a wedding, but being organised and writing a plan is one of the best ways to stay focused and make sure that everything is covered. There are some duties that traditionally will fall to the groom to do which we will go through below.
Some of the main things you both need to decide on will be firstly your wedding budget. This is one of the most important tasks as without a budget it will be hard to look at the options available to you. Don’t worry if your budget is small, you can still plan an amazing wedding day and you can be creative in order to save on your budget too.
Before the wedding day
If you both have a long list of things to look at for the wedding you could divide the tasks up between yourselves and there are some duties that will normally fall to the groom to do. The first is to pick your groomsmen and best man. There isn’t a set number of groomsmen that you should have on your wedding day, it’s more about personal choice and what works for you both as a couple. You’ll have to consider if you are also buying their wedding attire or if you will be asking them to buy it which comes down to your budget. If you are buying them then you may consider having a smaller number of groomsmen. When choosing who you would like to be your best man, you should choose someone who you are the closest to and who knows you the best. This could be a best friend that perhaps you’ve known all your life or it could be a sibling. Whoever you choose to ask, it will be a huge honour for them and they will have their own duties to perform both before and on the day of the wedding, so think about who you think would be most suited to doing this.
On the wedding day
There are plenty of tasks that the groom has to do on the day of the wedding. The groom and his groomsmen will need to make sure that they are at the wedding venue around an hour before the ceremony is due to start. This is because the registrars will need to speak to the groom before any guests enter to confirm all his details and also run through what will happen. Some important tasks can be delegated to your best man, that’s why he is there after all! These include making sure that he keeps the rings safe, ensuring that guests know where to go and where to sit and making sure that you arrive on time.
Speeches
This is often the part of the day that most grooms get the most anxious about as it’s a big deal for the groom and they are expected to talk in front of all the guests. This usually takes place during the wedding breakfast, but it’s not just the groom that will be speaking, traditionally the best man and father of the bride will also do a speech. The main thing to remember when making your speech is to speak from the heart and try not to overthink it too much. Everyone in the room are either family or friends and are there because they are important to you, so there won’t be any negativity towards you if you forget something or lose your place. Maybe you could meet up with your best man one evening to go through some tips on public speaking together! If you are really stuck on what to say you could do some research online and adapt some speeches, adding in your own personal details or stories. Some grooms like to add in some jokes or humour to make it more engaging for their guests, but don’t worry if this isn’t your personality, people will just enjoy listening to you talk about your love for your partner. After all, that’s the most important thing and the reason that everyone is there, plus who doesn’t love a good love story!