Couples planning their weddings are angry at the “flippant” way the Tánaiste ruled out any increase in guest numbers this summer.

On The Pat Kenny Show yesterday, Leo Varadkar said couples should not expect any change to the current limit of 50 guests this summer.

He also admitted that the Government has not considered using the indoor dining vaccine pass system to allow for larger parties.

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin had previously suggested wedding sizes would increase in August; however, Minister Varadkar said the rising case numbers had changed the Government’s plans.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, wedding expert Sara Kennedy said the main issues now is “pure upset and the toing and froing that couples have had to go through” with the changing guidelines.

“I woke up this morning to nearly 20 to 30 messages on my Instagram from girls that were not able to sleep last night,” she said.

“They are absolutely distraught; they had such high hopes and yet again after going through everything they have gone through, postponement after postponement and then getting a little bit of hope, it is now ripped from them – and in such a flippant way.

“To come out yesterday and just say well, you know, plan for 50.”

Wedding

She said the thing that is angering couples most was the fact that it appeared the Tánaiste “hadn’t even thought about it.”

“The problem is the fact that they are not thinking about it,” she said. “They are not looking and bringing all those strings together.

“It is whoever is screaming the loudest at that time – whether it is hotels or whether it is restaurants; they are putting those fires out based on how loud people are shouting.”

Also on the show, Cork nurse Eileen McCarthy said she last week invited 100 guests to her wedding on August 20th.

“I obviously knew about the Delta variant and the cases rising but I sort of assumed when I heard about the QR system coming in that they would implement something like that with weddings,” she said.

Vaccine

She said she would be “more than happy” to tell her guests that they must be fully vaccinated to attend.

“Leo said yesterday that a third of the population isn’t vaccinated so at a wedding of 50 people, we can presume there are 16 people unvaccinated and then that goes up to 33 if it is 100,” she said.

“Why would assume that when you have a system in place to have zero unvaccinated people at your wedding?

“Then his comment about nobody wanting to go down the route of uninviting unvaccinated guests to the wedding.

“I would much rather uninvite … I mean, my wedding is about 100 and looking at the list, I am guessing there are about five who might not be vaccinated by the time the wedding comes around.”

Vaccine pass

She said the refusal to use the QR code system for weddings does not make any sense.

“It is not that hard to roll out the exact same system that is in the restaurant next door to the function room for a wedding,” she said.

“I would be more than happy if they wanted us to email on the QR codes before the wedding if that is what they want or in normal service, when you come to the wedding at your check-in scan your codes and on you go.

“It doesn’t make any sense why that can’t be implemented. It is there already.”

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