Couples switch to smaller, outdoor weddings during coronavirus pandemic

Due to the coronavirus pandemic many brides and grooms have had to change their plans.

While some canceled or postponed their wedding until next year, many have decided to go along with a smaller and more intimate wedding.

Nicole and Rocky Fonovich of Long Island are one of many couples whose wedding plans came to a halt 6 months ago. In August of 2019 Rocky popped the question. After almost a year-long engagement, they were all set to tie the knot on July 10, 2020 at their dream wedding venue in New Jersey with a guest list of almost 300 people.

"The venue was beautiful it was big a lot of green landscaping,” said Rocky.

Not in their plans, however, a global pandemic.

"We really holding onto hope for a really long time, it wasn’t really until the end of May, beginning of June that we made a decision and realized this isn’t happening, ” said Nicole.

But the two had one thing clear, they wanted to get married somehow, someway.

"That was the most important thing to us,” said the couple.

With just a month until their original wedding date, they planned a smaller more intimate wedding at their lakehouse upstate. Their guest list went from over 300 guests to 28 people.

"It wasn’t this huge wedding venue, however, it was overlooking this beautiful view. It was the best day ever I don’t think it could’ve been better, ” said Nicole.

The young couple is part of a new growing wedding trend, so-called "Micro-weddings."

Wedding planner Andrea Freeman says outdoor, backyard weddings have become more, and more popular in the last few months.

”What I love thatI’m starting to see emerge are events that are focused on the community, really taking a look at why have a wedding in the first place, ” said Freeman.

She believes backyard weddings will continue to be a trend and says this time is going to influence a lot of what she and others in the industry do going forward.