Romanee, 34, and Sam Rondeau-Smith, 30, from Bramley, Guildford, were scheduled to tie their nuptials in July after being engaged in December last year, but the restrictions posed by the spreading pandemic pushed back their wedding date to August.
However, despite the restrictions being eased by that time, the pair was unable to have a full wedding reception. But they had decided that they wouldn’t change a thing.
So the creative-minded bride and groom came up with a unique way to ensure all of their loved ones, friends, and family were able to grace their special day with their “presence” at The Bell in Ticehurst, East Sussex.
After only being able to have 14 people at the wedding, the couple spent more than 2,000 British Pound Sterling (US$2,549) on 48 cardboard cutouts of their guests.
“We had about 100 people on our guest list but when coronavirus hit,” said Romanee, “we had to rework our plans and the venue were really flexible.”
“At the end of the day, we just want to get married so let’s just go ahead—it helps that we’re not high maintenance.”
Romanee said when they learned that one of her bridesmaids who is from Nashville wouldn’t be able to attend, they joked about “having her as a cardboard cut-out.”
“[W]e thought why we don’t do that with our guests,” Romanee said.
“We got all of our guests to send us a picture of them and it went from there.”
Romanee said that their wedding planner simply “loved it,” and she found the whole concept to be “hilarious.”
Their genius plan even saved the couple a little money.
“It worked out at the same price as what it would have cost to have them all here,” Romanee said, “but we saved on the booze!”
“I’m sure there will be a massive party at some point—just somewhere low key.”
Their out-of-the-box wedding ceremony is something they and their guests will remember for a lifetime.
“It was perfect. It was really relaxed,” Romanee said.
“We weren’t disappointed at all. Just being simple and having our immediate family there was perfect,” she added.
