We’ve heard, for months, about how an August wedding in Maine attended by a little over 60 people ended up being a superspreader event linked to at least 170 covid cases. The reason we know about this is because the Maine CDC did their homework and did contact tracing, which they’re being blocked from doing for the superspreader event held by the White House. As of a couple of weeks ago, there were 8 deaths resulting directly from that wedding. Keep in mind that there were under 65 people there. Well Cynthia Bailey of Real Housewives of Atlanta isn’t going to let a little pandemic get in the way of her wedding plans. On Saturday she married Mike Hill and hed a reception indoors with 250 guests because the weather was bad. She asked guests to wear masks and hired a deep cleaning team with safety checks, so at least she tried somewhat. Social media shows that was largely ineffective. The whole idea of having a giant in person wedding at this time is ridiculous. Here’s People’s writeup on Cynthia’s best laid plans.
“Usually, my concern before the wedding would be more focused on a lot of the aesthetics of the wedding,” Bailey tells PEOPLE. “However, because we are getting married in a pandemic, the focus has turned to: Do we have the thermometers for the temperature checks? Do we have sanitizer stations?”
“We aren’t messing around,” she adds.
The couple is set to wed at the Governors Towne Club in Acworth, Georgia. The ceremony was originally set to take place outdoors to accommodate their 250-person guest list, but due to impending weather from Hurricane Delta, the ceremony was forced to be moved indoors.
“Luckily, it’s big enough to be inside and still social distance, ” she says of the venue.
But spreading out chairs isn’t all the couple is doing. Ahead of the wedding, Bailey, 53, and Hill, 50, hired a team from Saniture Facilities Maintenance Inc. to deep clean the venue with a professional cordless electrostatic handheld sprayer. And before entering the ceremony, guests will be required to sign a COVID-19 waiver, undergo temperature checks, and be asked to wash their hands.
We will have hand sanitizing stations throughout the venue,” says the reality star. “And everyone must be wearing a mask at all times, it’s not optional.”
“We want to make people feel comfortable and not look irresponsible,” adds Hill. “We’ve been super transparent with everyone about what will be required. We’re doing everything we possibly can.”
And if a guest doesn’t have their own mask, not to worry: former Real Housewives of New York City star Jill Zarin sent her friend a supply of masks for the special day. They will also be passing out face shields as well.
“Jill made all of my masks,” says Bailey. “My wedding is going to look like a masquerade ball.”
As for the reception, social distancing dots will be placed throughout the venue to promote a safe environment for all guests.
“We’re not doing the traditional round tables, where everyone has a name tag and everyone sits together,” says Bailey. “We have food stations. This is a moving-around wedding. You can literally stand outside and drink and eat if you want to.”
“There’s no formality,” says Hill. “We want people to feel free and safe.”
I haven’t seen anyone other than over zoom or outdoors and masked for seven months. I haven’t even hung out with a handful of people, not to mention dozens. Of course you can “ask” people to wear masks indoors. All I have to do is go to the grocery store to see how that’s working out. People absolutely do not wear masks or they pull them down to do one little thing, like talking to the checkout person. You cannot get a large group of people who are eating, drinking and dancing to wear masks long enough for it to be safe for everyone. Videos posted from the wedding show that’s exactly what happened and by the time the music came on no one was wearing masks and were all clustered together. Just a few people wore visors. Having an indoor party is reckless, obnoxious and selfish. I don’t care if she hired a whole deep cleaning team. Did she rapid covid test everyone on entry too? Temperature checks are definitely not enough.
A personal trainer with a public Instagram (she is mentioned in Cynthia’s Instagram stories) has videos from the wedding. In the food line people are wearing masks. When it came time to do the garter removal I didn’t see one mask in the video and no one was socially distanced at all. Here’s a screenshot.
Here’s a larger shot, from a video posted by another guest, a friend of the personal trainer. These videos took me less than five minutes to find. Hope it was worth it and that no one caught anything.
photos via Instagram
Dumb, dangerous, and delusional.
Three Ds. That’s a massive fail. Some people are just too stupid for their own good, which would be fine at any other time. But she and her partner, and the idiots who attended this wedding placed themselves, those around them and, later, the communities they move around in, at high risk of infection. Have they still not learned the basics of how this virus works? They are selfish,reckless, irresponsible and yes, deluded.
Where I live in Sydney, we are surrounded by outbreaks, and until s few days ago, we’d had no cases in the entire state for almost two weeks. My daughter cannot leave the house unless it’s to go directly to the hospital each Thursday. She’s having chemo to kill off the remainder of her immune system (severely compromised after chemo for Stage 3 lymphoma), in preparation f-r stem cell/cord b;pod transfer. I can’t be with her during the chemo, and can’t even give her a hug when she’s violently ill from it. We just don’t know who is around us that could be a potential killer. No one, anywhere, can afford to be complacent.
AnnaK, thank you for sharing such a personal experience. People’s behaviors during this time are so all over the map, and it’s enraging. I just hope that a little spark of empathy is lit when people hear stories like yours and your daughter’s, and they reconsider pretending that they can delude themselves out of responsibility for the damage each new outbreak wreaks.
I will keep you and your daughter in my thoughts. I hope she has a full recovery.
Seriously? Shame on everyone who was involved in this. I know several people who have gotten married in the last few months, all outside, very small groups, and everyone in a mask. To do anything otherwise it’s simply selfish and risky, not just for those there, but for everyone they will then interact with.
This is so crazy, especially with how much harder COVID19 hits POC.
Her wedding anniversary will forever going forward will be the cause of many, many death- my god, this virus has an Rnaught of 2-3… imagine the numbers of infections from this.
Irresponsible and unlawful.
Good gawd. Why is everyone so STUPID about this virus?? Also, that dress is HIDEOUS.
It’s denial. People think if they act like everything is ok, everything will magically be ok and look at the examples people are seeing. That’s no excuse obviously and these are adults who should know better and do better. How many of them have small children, senior relatives they live with, so irresponsible. Then again I never understood the desire for these large extravaganza of a circus, forgive me, weddings.
The rich are incapable of depriving themselves a modicum of pleasure for the public good.
The rich are incapable of depriving themselves a modicum of pleasure for the public good.
This says it all.
To be fair though I’ve seen PLENTY of working class weddings going on with this sort of stupidity as well.
“In sickness and in health” . I guess we’ll see. SO TIRED OF INCONSIDERATE MORONS keeping this thing going!
Actually, hubby and I went to an outdoor, distanced wedding with masks, but by the reception, the masks came off, and everyone was boogying to a DJ in a packed throng. We left and never went near the dance floor, to hell with social niceties.
Nothing says wedding invite like requiring a Power of Attorney to be used in the future.
Why anyone would want their blessed union to have a body count is beyond me.
“Rain on your wedding day is good luck, so it must be GREAT luck if you actively infect and potentially kill some of your wedding guests and/or innocent civilians! Yay, marriage!”
Generally I want everyone to have whatever wedding they want…but are you effing kidding me?!? She’s in her 50s and needs still needs to be the bride? Jeez. So glad my entire family has been sitting in the house since March so she can so this crap.
Just from looking at his suit and her dress…Cynthia, girl, this wasn’t worth it.
And now you’ve put the rest of us in danger.
Have an acquaintance in Houston and her IG was filled with pics from a big wedding she attended over the weekend, without a mask to be seen anywhere. Meanwhile, in RI our numbers keep going up and we are banned from visiting numerous states thanks, in large part, to all the late summer tourists and now the partying college students.
Adding—they may think they’re cute because you can see their pretty little faces behind clear face shields, however, they do nothing without a mask. The mask must be worn. The shield is just in addition and to protect eyes. This is so disgusting and selfish on the couple’s part and those attending!
Who expected anything better from these hideously self-absorbed, spoiled, stupid people.