Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser has announced the latest COVID-19 decree to her subjects effective May 1: Indoor and outdoor weddings are allowed, but at 25 percent capacity and with a waiver required for more than 250 people.
And, FOX 5 reports: Guests must remain seated and socially distanced the entire time. That is, they cannot dance or stand during a wedding cocktail hour or reception.
For some couples this is a deal breaker, so they are looking at moving their weddings to places where restrictions are looser, like their home towns or in Virginia or Maryland, where COVID is mysteriously less deadly than in D.C.
In Virginia, weddings are still limited 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors. On May 15 those numbers are set to increase to 100 people inside and 250 outside. In Maryland, outdoor and indoor venues can operate at 50 percent capacity.
Neither state has any sort of ban on dancing and standing during weddings, like D.C. does.
FOX 5 contacted Mayor Bowser’s office about the dancing and standing ban at weddings. A spokeswoman said the ban was put in place as an extra layer of safety because when people stand and dance their behavior changes: People are more likely to get close and touch each other.
The office did not respond to FOX 5’s request for further information about why the District feels the need to have the restriction in place when neighboring states do not.
