Kenneth C was, like most grooms-to-be, looking forward to his wedding day.

It was to be a quaint, reasonably small event, with a solemnisation under a picturesque gazebo, followed by a lunch banquet with about 170 guests at the Level 2 Una restaurant at the Alkaff Mansion.

But, like the predicament of thousands of couples in Singapore slated to hold their wedding celebrations and banquets in the coming months, weeks — even days — C and his then-fiancée (now wife), who were supposed to get married on Sunday, March 29, saw their wedding day pan out very differently.

"Safely-distanced" wedding pictures

C said he and his wife decided, in the wake of directives from the government that no gatherings should involve more than 10 people, to still go ahead with their solemnisation — but only in the presence of their respective immediate families, with their Justice of Peace and photographer, of course.

And it led to a couple of very on-point Covid-19-themed pictures:

Which they took around their neighbourhoods growing up.

How their Covid-19 wedding day went

It started as usual with C's bride waking up early for hair and makeup at 6am at her parents' home, as well as the veiling ceremony. C, who decided from way prior, opted to go without a bridal party, and did the traditional picking-up and unveiling at about 8:15am.

From there, however, after their photoshoot, instead of travelling to Alkaff Mansion, the couple and their families proceeded to a function room in their matrimonial home at a condominium.

There, they met their Justice of Peace, who conducted their ceremony — and, C notes, in the spirit of social responsibility, it was all over in 30 minutes.

"Our JP was super reassuring. Besides being a staunch voice of support on the night the measures hit, he helped urgently amend documents the very next morning for our ROM appointment at 9:30am. He must have seen it all.

Our photographer was similarly amazing, guiding us through to make the most of the day, and superbly capturing our happiness, love and joy alongside our families, despite the craziness of it all."

Here's how their function room was arranged, with their families' chairs spaced safely apart as well:

But the journey of how they got here wasn't at all straightforward.

How events unfolded over the past week

The final week in the run-up to a wedding is understandably hectic for any couple getting married, but for C and his wife, it was fraught with uncertainty and changing developments.

As new directives came thick and fast over the week, it started with Saturday, March 21, following new measures announced requiring eateries to space their seating for groups of diners by 1m, as well as requirements for shopping malls and retail outlets to space their queues out by 1m too.

These by the evening of March 24 became legal requirements, with the government announcing that gatherings must be restricted to a maximum of 10 people (including weddings).

The couple decided, in response to this, to make the tough call to cancel their larger wedding celebration completely and proceed only with their solemnisation with their respective immediate families (this was followed by a Pizza Hut delivery lunch).

They sent the following WhatsApp message to their 170 guests:

They struggled, however, to get a clear assurance from their venue hosts, 1-Group, that they would be allowed to receive a full refund on the almost five-figure deposit they paid upfront for their wedding lunch.

"When we finally heard back from them, it was consistently clearly positioned around non-committal legalese, dependent on the government relief measures and their insurers. At no point were we reassured that any changes to the originally-signed off contract would get us any form of refund or support whatsoever."

C told Mothership about a "force majeure" clause in his contract with them, which states that in the event of events beyond the company's or client's control, the event can be cancelled with a full refund granted to the client (him).

Text messages exchanged between the couple and 1-Group's wedding coordinators, seen by Mothership, detail initial indications from 1-Group that the 10-member party requirement was not a mandatory rule — hence the force majeure clause doesn't yet kick in.

A follow-up email from C that evening led to a response noting his request being forwarded to their legal team.

As their wedding date drew closer and closer, C followed up with emails looping in the group's managing director Joseph Ong on Wednesday, Thursday and early Friday morning last week — finally only hearing from Ong later on Friday morning.

Following further emails back and forth, C and his wife eventually moved to cancel their wedding lunch, but by Monday told Mothership he still wasn't clear whether they would be able to get their money back in full.

“During this stressful scramble, we wished our venue was more sympathetic. While we have been struggling with them, we are heartened to know that most other hotels and venues have already reached out to offer strong support for impacted couples including full refunds for their large deposits in limbo.”

1-Group: Cancellations & full refunds will be allowed for weddings up till May

In response to queries from Mothership, 1-Group clarified that in view of the extraordinary circumstances the Covid-19 outbreak has brought about, it is allowing cancellations and full refunds for events slated in the months of March, April and May.

"Our official policy on weddings and events after the announcement made on 24 March 2020 was to allow our couples and event organisers to postpone or cancel their weddings or events in March and April as required by the authorities.

Due to the uncertainties surrounding Covid-19 and the stress that it causes our couples and organisers to have, we have gone further to allow the same options for weddings in May 2020. If the situation remains the way it is into May, we may even have to offer the same options in June as well and so on."

Ong also confirmed to Mothership that this meant it would issue full refunds to the affected couples who opted to cancel their weddings, instead of postpone them:

"... for these permitted cancellations from March to May, we will be returning the deposits as if there was no contract in the first place."

The company also expressed its hopes, however, that the government will be able to assist with mitigating the losses they and other wedding venues and organisers have suffered in the crisis.

"The postponement and cancellation are no fault of the couples or clients, and even ourselves. In this regard, we hope that the government will look into this restriction and how it has impacted our business, and help us to mitigate the losses and cost incurred as a result of these cancellations/postponement.

We are heartened that DPM Heng had highlighted this exact issue on Thursday during the resilience budget speech and we look forward to hearing what the government can help us with."

Thousands of couples stranded, concerned about status of their weddings

C's story has a bittersweet ending, to his and his wife's relief, but thousands of other couples continue to experience stress and uncertainty over whether or not they can proceed with their weddings, or if their venues will allow them to cancel or postpone their events without penalty.

An online petition on Change.org was by Monday (March 30) signed by almost 5,000 people.

Its starter wrote:

"Many couples have already reduced their number of guests multiple times, from 300 to 250, to 100, 50 and now with the latest advisory by MOH to keep gatherings below 10 participants, it just isn't wise or logical to proceed with organising a banquet anymore...

The Ministry of Health's news release only advise for such events to be kept to 10 persons or below. With it only being an advisory, a lot of hotels and wedding venues are not willing to see it as mandatory and hence are still expecting couples to have their banquets go on as usual, or risk forfeiting deposits or even 100 per cent of the fees."

Although multiple large hotel groups have confirmed their willingness to issue full refunds or be flexible about postponement with their couples with weddings slated for this year, numerous others have not yet confirmed or made clear their policies in light of the situation, many of which appear to be adopting a "wait-and-see" approach.

That being said, DPM Heng did in his Supplementary Budget speech last week mention the issue of numerous contractual agreements not being able to be honoured in light of the government's latest directives and advisories:

"But there is also an important and complementary part – giving people relief from legal obligations that have arisen because of the COVID-19 situation. It is no fault of theirs that they cannot perform these obligations.

For example, people may have paid deposits for a big gathering that now cannot go ahead. It is not their fault that the gathering cannot go ahead. Should the deposits be simply forfeited? That won’t be right.

The government is studying the issue, and the Minister for Law will present a set of measures to deal with this, at the next Parliamentary sitting."

So the government may indeed have solutions to help these stranded couples, as well as wedding vendors, in the near future.

Top photo courtesy of Kenneth C

 

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