The pandemic has prompted a radical downsizing and rethinking of nuptials. As couples discover the benefits of smaller ceremonies, the trend might outlast the virus
At 5.40am on 24 October last year, Anna Butler and George Tapp walked hand-in-hand from their nearby apartment down to Bronte beach’s ocean pool. Though a popular site for swimming and exercising, the pair weren’t visiting for morning laps. Butler and Tapp were getting married – one of many couples in 2020 who eschewed a large wedding in favour of a more intimate affair.
“It was the place of our first date, and where George proposed,” explains Butler of the location’s significance, though truthfully it wasn’t their first choice of wedding venue. They had originally intended to wed in Mollymook, on the New South Wales south coast, alongside 150 of their nearest and dearest, before Covid-19 and its various lockdowns forced them, frustratingly, back to the drawing board.
