Depending on your stance on the current Coronavirus Quarantine policies, we may have some good news for the wedding photographers in Ohio. On Thursday Lt. Gov. Jon Husted announced that starting on June 1st, 2020, Ohio will allow wedding and banquet receptions of up to 300 people to be held in the state. The move is the latest in a series of steps by Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration to roll back social-distancing rules set up weeks ago to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Catering and banquet centers will be allowed to reopen under the same rules as restaurants and bars. That includes six-foot distancing between tables and no congregating.
We recognize that there are a lot of weddings and events that are important to people’s lives that can and should go on. We are just asking that it be done safely — as safely as possible — to avoid the spread of the virus. – Lt. Gov. Jon Husted
[Related Reading: Guidelines for Photographers Who Want to Reopen Revealed By Washington]
What’s interesting is according to the briefing and report, the states limit on group gatherings will still remain at 10 people, however, just like at restaurants and bars, up to 300 people can attend a wedding reception as long as they remain in small groups socially distanced from one another.
They also clarified, that the 300 person limit was “per-facility” meaning that venues that can host multiple weddings at the same time, cannot stage two 300 person weddings/events. The state’s limit means 300 people total under one roof/building/venue.
DeWine said “the most important thing” is for people to keep their distance from each other.
“Caterers made a really good point. They said, ‘Look, we have a place we can do it. We can provide the exact same distancing that a restaurant can,'” the governor said. That argument, DeWine said, “makes sense.”
Up until this point, large gatherings of any kind have been banned since early March (According to www.Clevland.com), due to fears a large gathering would cause new outbreaks of Coronavirus. So this change is either going to be very welcome, or very pushed back against. Either way, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens. So for your readers in Ohio, what’s your stance on this new policy shift and reopening? Will you be shooting or attending any of these weddings once they start? Will you still practice safe social distancing and wearing masks/gloves when possible? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
