At the start of this planning process, our photographer asked us to share our vision for the weekend. We wrote:

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Our long, outdoor dance party, also known conventionally as a wedding, seeks to share the fierce and intense way that we love (and fell in love) with one another with our friends and their friends to create new, intentional bonds between people. Like an octopus where each of the tentacles is a new friend, new dance move, new conversation, we hope to gather around a few key elements: delicious food, deliberate conversation, and D A N C I N G, peppered with stargazing, non-failed camp fires, and speeches by small children who should probably never hold microphones at events. Crackling sparks and smiles, hugs of loved ones and those just meeting and becoming friends. These joys are important to capture, remember, and share. We’d love to be fully engaged in the act of sharing our love and those who love us, but also be able to have these interactions chronicled. Yes, there will be a 7-year-old emcee, group dancing, and people trying foods for the first time. Our message to the guests, embrace it – it’s us: energetic and WILD.

 

All of this to say that central to our wedding planning was the idea of community. We asked our dearest friends and family to pitch camp together at Firelight so that we could foster closeness, coziness, and connection. But right now, that closeness is discouraged. Holding hands, hugging, forgetting yourself in the middle of Mr. Brightside (because that always happens at weddings, even if we are more of a Sean Paul crew), sharing marshmallow roasting sticks, passing around heaps of couscous, eating with your fingers... all of these normal behaviors seem increasingly questionable for a late June weekend where the young and young at heart are so close together. Not to mention that travel regulations are becoming tighter, preventing some of our guests from entering the country or crossing state lines. You are all travelling from four countries and fourteen states, passing through about ten unique airports. Even as vaccines become more available and prevalent, in February 2021, when we needed to make a decision, only 15% of our guests had been vaccinated: all in New York. There were also significant restrictions on out-of-state, not to mention international, travel. All in all, even with rising vaccines, it is still not safe until we have all been vaccinated. Rather than risk it all and negotiate with all of your health and be subject to odd wedding regulations (like fifteen separate dance floors), we have decided to wait until next year.