• From April 24, wedding couples will be allowed to invite up to 250 people, up from 100 now 
• New rules state that pre-event testing will be needed for attendee sizes of more than 100
• Couples said they may keep to smaller weddings for now, given the cost of Covid-19 testing
• Others have signed wedding packages requiring them to host more guests when the 100-person limit is raised
• Hotels, venue operators said they are awaiting more details from the authorities before they review their plans

SINGAPORE — Some couples who will be tying the knot after April 24 intend to keep their big day as a small affair, with no more than 100 attendees at their wedding, even though capacity limits will be relaxed by then.

Their reason: Hosting any more than 100 people, including the couple, will require pre-event Covid-19 testing that could be costly to the newlyweds.

That, or they could pass the costs on to their guests.

Mr Mark Yong, 28, who will marry his 24-year-old fiancee in August, said: “I don’t think people would pay another S$50 (to be tested for Covid-19) to go to a wedding. That’s on top of the hongbao (red packet gift money).”

An antigen rapid test is now available for about S$50 at most places.

On Wednesday, the authorities announced that from April 24, couples will be allowed to invite 150 more individuals to their receptions and marriage solemnisations as the present 100-person limit will be raised to 250 attendees, including the wedding couple.

Guests will have to keep to zones of up to 50 people each. The wedding solemniser as well as vendors — banquet service crew, for example — are excluded from this count.

Soon-to-be wed couples told TODAY that they were concerned about the new requirement for pre-event testing if there are more than 100 attendees. The rule could mean that they would have to foot the bill for each of their invited guests.

Mr Yong, an illustrator, said that he would have liked to invite 200 guests to his upcoming wedding if Covid-19 was not a factor.

However, he and his fiancee are unwilling to put their guests through the hassle and to fork out the extra cost for rapid Covid-19 testing just to attend their wedding.

Mr Yong had considered covering the cost of testing, but he figured that it would be too costly since it could come up to S$12,500 if he invited 250 people. That is half the S$25,000 budget they had set aside for the wedding.

Besides, he had already paid a S$3,000 deposit to secure the venue for their reception – Ban Heng restaurant at Orchard Central mall – which was decided upon based on the original 100-attendee plan.

“Nobody is going to pay (S$12,500) just for testing,” he said.

Another 29-year-old bride-to-be who wanted to be known only by her first name, Geraldine, is reluctant to impose swab tests on her guests by increasing the number of attendees for her June wedding banquet to beyond 100 as well.

“The guests might want reimbursement for the test... If they have to pay the cost, they may not want to come,” Geraldine, who works in the finance sector, said.

She is already in a fix because she had signed a contract with the wedding venue — a hotel that she declined to name — stating that she would book a minimum of 20 tables if the Government allows more guests to attend wedding receptions at least two months before her banquet.

If there were no changes, she would pay for just about 12 tables to cater for 100 people at most.

She was agreeable to the terms because she and her 29-year-old fiance had wanted to host 150 to 200 people if there was no 100-people limit, but she did not think that the increase in capacity limit would come with pre-event testing.

With the extra tables, she now faces the upsetting possibility of forking out another S$16,000, even if she chooses to keep her wedding small to avoid the need for pre-event tests.

Geraldine said that she intends to negotiate with the hotel for a waiver of the clause. “It is not very fair because we didn’t know that (the Government) would get the guests to do Covid-19 tests,” she said.

For others such as global brand manager Jayasutha Samuthiran, 30, more clarity is needed on the new rules, which were announced in a press conference by the ministerial task force in charge of Singapore’s pandemic response.

She intends to host a traditional wedding at Yishun’s Holy Tree Sri Balasubramaniam Temple in May, with guests receiving bento boxes containing dinner. The temple had stated that only up to 100 people are allowed, with no eating permitted within its premises.

“We are taking a cautious approach to wait it out to see if we are allowed to expand our guest list, so we are not doing anything at the moment,” she said. “We are not getting our hopes up.”

She would not consider switching it to a wedding reception, where guests would sit and eat. The need for pre-testing is a “big caveat”, she said.

HOTELS, WEDDING VENUES AWAIT MORE INFO

When approached about their new arrangements, hotels and wedding vendors also said that they were working with the authorities and awaiting clarifications because they had only just learnt of the new safe-distancing rules.

Watabe Wedding Singapore, the official venue operator for Chijmes Hall and Alcove at Caldwell House, said that it is waiting for updates from the Government regarding the details on pre-event testing.

More details about the testing will be given in April, the Ministry of Health’s website showed.

The operator said: “Once we have the updated details, we will be able to finalise our venues’ layouts in relation to the new measures to cater for weddings with more than 100 attendees, together with arrangements for pre-event testing.” 

For the One°15 Marina club at Sentosa Cove, it said that it will advise wedding couples accordingly once the measures are finalised.

Responding to TODAY’s queries, hotels in the Park Hotel Group said that they will not be affected since the maximum capacities of their function spaces are already capped at 100 people, given their sizes.

A Park Hotel Alexandra representative said that since pre-event testing for group sizes below 100 is not mandatory, the costs of such tests would be borne by the wedding couples.

“That said, we are awaiting for official directives to be issued from the authorities before we review our current packages and procedures,” he said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NG JUN SEN