Covid-19: 'Wedding guest list cut from 180 to 6 - but we're getting married'

Weddings in England are back on. After months of lockdown, small ceremonies can go ahead with up to six people.

Receptions are still not allowed - but guests will be able to celebrate in groups of six outdoors.

For engaged couple Jess Warren-Basham and Jonny Cope from Hampshire, they're simply excited they can finally marry.

The couple's original wedding date was last August. They then postponed it to yesterday - 28 March - just one day short of the lockdown easing.

"We were 11 and a half hours too early for the roadmap and step one for weddings to be allowed," says bride-to-be Jess, 28.

"So we had to move the whole thing back another day just to get to the 29 March date that obviously [is when] the unlocking starts," her fiance Jonny, 30, adds.

But the couple are incredibly upbeat. "Luckily I always wanted daffodils," says Jess. "I'm from south Wales originally. There were two things I knew from a little girl and that was daffodils and the song I wanted to walk up the aisle to.

"So originally in August I had sourced lots of silk daffodils. However, when we had the opportunity - I'm being positive - when we had the opportunity to move to March, it meant we could have real daffodils.

"Every cloud has a silver lining."

Jonny's dad will take on the role of DJ, and the couple's friends, who are performers, have recorded two songs for the ceremony. "Nobody actually met up to record it, they all did it at home and pinged over it," Jess tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"So even though they're not there in real life their voices will be singing for our day. And we're hoping that our live stream will go ahead so that people can watch from wherever they are in the world. I know my auntie's watching in Australia, and my gran."

"I've got the high-pressure job of setting up the live stream and making sure it's pointing in the right direction," says Jonny. "I think I know how to do it, but still, it's just you know, anything can go wrong."

The couple also spoke of the challenge of cutting down their guest list from 180.

"Our original list, it was 180 and now it is six," says Jess, laughing.

Jonny, a solicitor, says the small number actually "made it a lot easier because it's just inviting the parents really, whereas if it had been 15 or 30 it would have been more difficult to cut off".

Jess, who runs baby and toddler classes, adds: "You have to look at the positives and for us, those four people, our parents, are the closest people that we would love to be there.

"And how many couples get to say they get to spend the whole day with just six people? And making those memories with the closest people you have around you I think."

But it's not just couples who have had to postpone several times that are marrying today.

Dwain Daley and Nyasha Pitt met online during the pandemic and will get married later this morning at Coventry Register Office.

Having met in July, the pair said they had spent only four days apart and Dwain said they were eager to marry."I definitely want us to be married and I do not care if it is a small ceremony because as long as we get the ceremony done and we are married, we are together," he tells BBC Midlands Today.

Others are finding the strict person limit stressful. One bride-to-be from Dorset, who is getting married this weekend, says the rule means that she and her fiance are facing a childcare issue.

They would have postponed their wedding, but her fiance - who is in in the military - is being deployed for seven months and they wanted to get married first.

"I'm feeling very anxious," says the bride, who did not want to be named. "It's not exciting, whereby when you get married it should be exciting."

The couple say they are in a bind: the six person limit means that they cannot have both sets of parents and their two young daughters present. They would marry with just their parents there, but they have no-one else to take care of their children since their childcare bubble is the parents.

"It's an upsetting situation," she says. "At the moment we have been thinking about having my fiance's mother outside with our eight-month-old."

Until now, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies have only been allowed to take place in England in exceptional circumstances and receptions have been banned.

According to the government's plan for weddings, the next stage - no earlier than 12 April - will see ceremonies and receptions allowed for up to 15 people.

However, they will only be possible if they meet certain rules - for example ceremonies must be held in Covid-secure venues that are allowed to open, and receptions can only be in the form of a sit down meal or in outdoor venues and cannot take place in people's private gardens or public outdoor spaces.

The numbers are then set to rise to 30 people from the next step, no earlier than 17 May, and then the government's plan is to lift all restrictions in the final step which could be 21 June at the earliest.

In Scotland, wedding ceremonies and receptions can resume for up to 50 people from 26 April, but no alcohol will be allowed at receptions.

In Wales, licensed visitor attractions and hotels can open to hold wedding ceremonies. The maximum number of attendees is determined by the building's capacity.

And in Northern Ireland, up to 25 people can attend a ceremony, although events with more than 15 people require a risk assessment. Face masks must be worn by guests