Wedding bells still rang in Guelph in 2020, just not nearly as often

Eight letters, three words, one meaning said Tom P to his bride-to-be, Diane. In other words,”I love you.”

Whether there was rain or shine, or a virus that locked down the world, the couple over 50 was determined to get married on a date that symbolizes their love, on 8/31.

On Aug. 31 the sun shone bright and the couple was married in Homewood Suites, the service conducted by Guelph minister Jay Brown, with 12 close family members present socially distanced and wearing masks while others streamed the service online. 

“I’ve been waiting and waiting,” laughed Diane. 

“If we had to do it in rubber boots and a raincoat, I wouldn't care.”

Despite not being able to have a typical wedding ceremony, weddings were still happening in 2020, just not nearly as many.

The City of Guelph issued a total of 450 marriage licenses in 2020. A drop from 764 in 2019 and 822 in 2018.

While marriage licenses aren't the only indicator of marriages in the city last year, they do give an idea of how many people intended to get married within 90 days of the licence being issued. The number of confirmed marriages is only available once the marriages are registered with the province. 

City clerk Stephen O'Brien said the numbers of marriages in the city absolutely went down, especially during the first lockdown when the city stopped issuing licenses. 

“We were closed for approximately 25 per cent of the year last year, roughly a three-month window, and that decreases roughly. It's on par for what you’d expect,” said O’Brien. 

The city also performs onsite ceremonies in city hall and saw a drop from 216 ceremonies in 2019 to 136 in 2020.

Off-site ceremonies stayed relatively the same. They dropped from 33 in 2019 to 32 in 2020. 

“What I understand is that those that might have been planning a wedding, may have taken a pause. Perhaps they were looking to get married in the latter half of 2020 and they decided to put that off until mid-2021 or the end of 2021,” said O’Brien. 

He said the city expects the number of licenses issued to return to the 750 to 825 range in a typical year. 

O’Brien said holding a marriage ceremony is also dependent on a number of factors such as geographical convenience and competitive pricing. He said obviously in 2020, marriages were impacted by COVID-19. 

“The fact is despite a pandemic, people’s lives continue and we’re happy to be able to continue to support and serve the community,” said O’Brien. 

The city opted to continue ceremonies in person as permitted by the province with increased safety measures such as limiting the number of people in the gathering, physical distancing and wearing a mask. 

“We found that people value that service despite the restrictions that take place,” said O’Brien 

A ceremony like this would not be able to go virtual because, in a civil ceremony, O’Brien said there need to be 13 signatures, which includes a series of signatures on the license, in the marriage registrar held by the city, and in the record of solemnization.

Brown, a Guelph minister who has performed over 6,000 marriage ceremonies in Southwestern Ontario over the years, said all the weddings ceremonies she performed in 2020 were either on an open field or on a balcony with the bride, groom and few attendees six feet apart. 

She said in the early part of 2020, people began postponing their weddings to the following year or indefinitely because times are just so uncertain. 

Compared to an average year, Brown said her wedding ceremony bookings dropped by 75 per cent. She added that the weddings she booked for 2021 are even lower than that of 2020.

“Weddings are really, really down this year,” said Brown. 

She recalled one of the first weddings she went to in 2020 which was held in a backyard with 20 people all six feet apart, all wearing masks and twelve feet away from Brown.

The bride and groom then pulled their masks down to share their vows, Brown stepped back another six feet and then the couple kissed. 

“And I said wow. This is really going to be something you can tell your children,” said Brown.

She said a lot of couples who got married wanted to go forward despite the pandemic because it was the day they initially planned and didn't want to delay it any further.

In those cases, she likes to remind people that every wedding has two parts. 

“The first part is the ceremony and the second part is the celebration,” said Brown. 

She recalls a couple saying they would get married and not have a celebration until after the pandemic. 

“So I said ‘Hey, you're doing the first part, you’re getting married. It’s still your wedding,’” said Brown. 

“And they smiled and said ‘Okay then! That’s how we’ll do it.’”