London Town Gardens is not currently (as of August 26th) subject to an occupancy limit, as it is not specifically listed in Governor Hogan’s Executive Order (https://governor.maryland.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Gatherings-NINTH-AMENDED-6.10.20.pdf) reopening certain businesses and facilities with strict requirements (if it is not listed, it is up to local officials to impose certain restrictions). The Maryland Department of Commerce has shared through guidance that weddings can be held without an occupancy limit or face covering requirement. London Town’s Private Events Manager is keeping us apprised of any further restrictions Edgewater, Annapolis, and Anne Arundel County may impose that would impact our wedding. Venue staff and catering staff will be wearing masks. We encourage all guests to come with a mask and wear it unless you are eating or drinking.
All venues and guests are strongly recommended to follow the most current guidance from the CDC regarding social distancing. We encourage every guest coming to bring a mask with them and wear one at their own discretion, especially as they interact with venue staff. We WILL ask guests to wear a mask anytime they enter into the pavilion for any reason. There will be no one onsite to ‘enforce’ this, just be kind, friendly, and think about the other guests in attendance!
This is a challenge, of course, because this whole event is supposed to be a welcoming celebration! We would just ask everyone to be mindful and understand each guest likely feels a varying degree of comfort with intimate signals of camaraderie and signs of affection. As you arrive for the ceremony, there will be wrist bands available for you to choose to wear that are red, yellow and green, which will look to indicate how comfortable you are being around and greeting people.
As you arrive, you will be asked to do a temperature check before finding a seat for the ceremony. Each side of the ceremony area will have 6 chairs, spaced appropriately apart, with additional chairs on each side flanking the 'traditional rows' of chairs. As the ceremony is outside in a large historic garden, there will also be space in the back and along the sides to stand and watch the ceremony if that makes you more comfortable. We encourage guests to wear a mask during the ceremony.
We are working through logistics with London Town staff to ensure the ceremony, dinner, and dancing will maintain a socially distanced floor plan. This also includes staff being present during the evening to continuously sanitize light switches, door handles, both bar areas (don’t worry it’s an open bar just tip the bartender!), cocktail tables and other high touch surfaces. Hand sanitizer will be found throughout the venue and we encourage everyone to use it often. There will be multiple bars on-site to help spread people out at inflection points where people will be more likely to gather. The venue has hosted multiple weddings of various sizes since the start of August and have only heard positive feedback, with no issues reported thus far.
The cocktail hour will be outside and tables will be spread out (it is a big area)! There are multiple bars on-site. Our caterer has already done multiple weddings during COVID at this venue and has a plan in place to best position everyone to mingle safely.
We have added a smaller 'bump-out' tent so that we can spread people out more! Both tents can be 'open air tents' that have walls that will be opened so long as the weather cooperates! At this time, there will be a sweetheart table, with 2-3 10 person tables specifically dedicated for family of the bride and groom, along with 10 other tables to properly space remaining guests out. There will be a mix of 6 and 8 person tables where we will methodically position people that know each other and/or have likely traveled to the wedding together.
Yes, we have arranged for transportation to take guests staying at the Westin Hotel and Doubletree from the venue back to the hotel. Transportation will not be made available to Airbnbs, houses, or other hotels that you may choose to stay at.
Yep! London Town has free parking for wedding guests- there should be more than enough to accommodate everyone! If you plan to leave your vehicle overnight, that is not a problem. You will need to pick it up the next day between 10-12.
Sorry to hear that! We hope you can still find accommodations in your price range. There are many hotel options in downtown Annapolis, as well as Airbnb and VRBOs in the area. Unfortunately, transportation to and from the venue will only be stopping at the Westin and the Doubletree.
The dancing portion of the event will be crucial to keeping this safe for everyone! We ask everyone to stick to dancing on the dancefloor and be mindful of dancing near your seat depending on the other people at your table. Do your best to dance with a mask on! Some people prefer to be on the dancefloor the whole time at a wedding, others not as much. Regardless where you fall on the scale, please be mindful of the space you have around you and give others a turn. As it is as an open air tent, there will also be room outside the tent on the grass to do dancing as well (dont worry, the 7 person band should be loud enough for you to hear outside the tent)!
The venue has a strict curfew of 10pm.
We are continuously in contact with the wedding venue and private events manager to make sure we are on top of Maryland’s plan to re-open methodically. It is important that you give us your email address on your RSVP card so we can update you should anything important change between now and then. We also encourage you to familiarize yourself with Maryland’s best practices (https://open.maryland.gov/backtobusiness/) to help make sure no major setbacks occur before, during, or after our wedding
As of August 26, 2020, we anticipate around 80 people to attend. We initially planned for 150! That number could further change over the next month.
We are hoping the weather cooperates but of course it may rain! Our rain plan is to have the ceremony under the tent. Cocktail hour will be held on the covered deck and underneath the pavilion. The reception will take place under the tent as scheduled.
Yes! You can view our livestream here https://event.lovecastapp.com/event/xdZomI2tVuGMYAgR1kNp ! You can subscribe to the event on the website and get notified when we go live