A reminder that debating is not permitted on CC.
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I agree, testing does not cause it, certainly. I am talking about consideration to guests, and people being made aware of what is asked for in sufficient time to make arrangements for testing and what if’s.
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D and her fiancé have travel insurance to cover any eventuality with their honeymoon. She won’t start working til August and he is working remotely and masking when he does go to the office. Her program grad is virtual, a good thing since it’s a medical field.
Everyone attending is local, so no hotels.
When I read the wedding sub-reddits, the number of couples who have had drastic changes in wedding sizes and styles over the past 2 years is stunning. The 200+ weddings like my niece had several years ago are now the outliers.
It’s funny looking at some of the posts from early 2020 saying they were replanning for early 2021 because it would surely be over.
Guess it’s good D was overwhelmed with school and didn’t plan for 2020 or 21.
Who knew we’d still be worried? 
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I’m the OP. Originally I said I was thinking of emailing guests a couple of weeks before wedding. Very early in this thread I became convinced that I need to do it sooner. That’s why I started the thread. For input.
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Just returned from lovely outdoor wedding near NYC. No masks/tests discussed. The outdoor site likely mitigated some risk, but the guests arrived by planes and trains to the hotel and took private buses to the site. The very crowded dance floor, the close table seating, all the hugs, the indoor brunch the next day-I fully expect covid will spread, but even the many doctors present were not too worried about it.
My daughter just went to a wedding recently, nothing on the invitation card about COVID, it’s very nice and decent place with both indoor/outdoor space. It certainly gives me ideas what to do for wedding venues in the future, much more affordable than the one my niece threw a few years ago.
Just RSVPd to a fall wedding via The Knot. The couple has requested uploading vax status prior to the wedding. (It appears to be a built-in option on the site, not specific to this wedding.)
Oh, well. I’m a week out from surgery and isolating away from everybody. The offspring say loads are out at work, 2 left in the department employer-wide according to one.
I wish it was a one and done illness. 
There is a big wave of flu going around here, especial among children.
Flu (and covid) still going around here too. Last week, H said two classes only had 7-8 kids left.
That’s pretty meaningless at this point.
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Not really. A vaccinated person is likely to clear an infection much more quickly and therefore be less likely to a) infect others at the event (if infected just before event), and b) go on to spread it to the wider community if he/she becomes infected at event.
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Anyone not aware of the extent of, or who underestimates the risk for, long COVID would not be at all worried. I understand that.
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I expect the medical doctors present had at least as good an understanding, but perhaps a different risk tolerance, than you do. To each their own. You may disagree with them, but that is a difference of opinion, not ignorance.
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Depends on what level of vaccination they are requesting. If they are requesting only primary vaccination (i.e. minimum one shot of J&J), then it may not mean much (probably most unvaccinated people have been infected, and infection alone is probably roughly similar to one dose of vaccine in immune response against future viral attacks).
But if they are requesting a record of booster or infection in addition to primary vaccination, then they are asking for a higher immunity baseline than what can generally be assumed in the population.
Doesn’t the protection from vaccination depend upon the time from last booster? And the vaccinated can spread the Omicron subvariants very efficiently. I think quick PCR testing (which apparently does exist) just before the wedding would be the best to prevent covid spread.
I know people who are vaccinated and think masking is not necessary, even in areas of high community transmission. Their risk tolerance is far greater than mine, apparently. I wonder how many people will contract covid at that wedding, and how many thought there was protection simply because people uploaded their vaccination status.
Rapid PCR or NAAT testing is expensive, though. It may also catch pre-contagious or post-contagious infections (false positives for the purpose of stopping spread).
Rapid antigen testing is more practical and mostly shows positive for contagiousness, but can miss some infected people, including those who are pre-contagious but just on the edge of becoming contagious within the time frame of the event (false negatives for the purpose of stopping spread).
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I’ve been extremely disappointed in the abysmal level of infectious disease, epidemiology, and public health understanding of most doctors. Particularly the surgical subspecialists. I’d trust an MPH, DrPH, or any public health professional well before most MDs when it comes to COVID spread and consequences. The ones who seem most aware are the primary-care docs. Especially the pediatricians who have 8 year olds coming in with long covid.
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If it is your wedding and you are the host, you can set whatever restrictions you like, and guests may choose whether they wish to attend or not. Seems quite clear and uncontroversial. Host sets the rules for those actually attending in person- you can ask for any proof or testing or whatever you wish, and guests may or may not agree to the conditions.
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Yeah, I am going to say I don’t agree with your wording. There are HIGHLY intelligent people who are perfectly aware of, and correctly estimate the risk for long covid, who are not particularly worried about it. They realize that a lot of the studies are based on earlier versions of the disease, that created completely different long covid risks, and that the risks of significant long covid issues that are long-lasting, may be very tiny for them. (Not tiny for people who have diabetes, certain auto-immune diseases, other high risk factors such as weight, older age, other things). But a lot of people who are smart can scour the research and are aware that their own particular risk with Omicron specifically for long-lasting-symptons-that-would-upset-them is not significant (a lot of studies include symptoms that last 2-6 weeks, that many people don’t care about. Also they include very minor issues, such as a minor 3 minute cough in the morning, that doesn’t impair life. It’s a shame these studies don’t separate out impacts that would truly upset us vs. very minor lingering things that a lot of people are ok with). It totally varies by person, but you saying that people “underestimate” the risk or that people are “unaware of the risk” is not accurate. 
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@brantly have you decided what COVID-19 mitigation (or lack thereof) the event will have, in order to give sufficient advance notice before invitees commit?