PETALING JAYA: For retail manager Nurfazirah Mohamed Buruham, her wish of having a garden-themed wedding isn’t such a distant dream after all.
“At least now, I can breathe a sigh of relief as I am able to plan for it without much worry,” she said, referring to the government’s lifting of restrictions on capacity limit for event venues.
Nurfazirah, 24, is among those excited at the prospect of planning for their big day once again.
She had previously postponed her nuptials in December last year. Now she is planning for the garden wedding at the end of this year.
“Due to the previous standard operating procedure, my partner and I were unable to have the wedding based on how we wanted it to be,” she said, adding that the relaxation on border restrictions would also enable her Singapore-based family to attend without much hassle.
Nurfazirah, who works in Johor, said she had been unable to meet her boyfriend much in the past two years due to restrictions on interstate travel as he was based in Penang.
She also spoke about concerns over the daily number of Covid-19 infections despite having the opportunity to have a wedding celebration.
“I will make sure that all the guests have a low-risk Covid-19 status,” Nurfazirah said.
Similarly, chartered financial analyst student Malissa Ali, who postponed her wedding for almost a year, said she now had more flexibility to send out invitations to more family members and friends.
“Now, I can plan my dream wedding with peace of mind,” she said.
She added that the uncertainty in previous situations had led to many vendors insisting on a non-refundable policy.
Although she understood their predicament, Malissa said it had caused a big setback to her wedding plans.
“Now, we can come up with a decisive timeline for our wedding without the anxiety of making large payments to the vendors,” she added.
Content moderator Balaguru Thevan, 26, said the lifting of restrictions on venue capacity allowed him to better plan for his engagement ceremony later this year.
“Initially, we wanted to keep things simple and have a scaled-down celebration after the marriage registration.
“But now that there is more leniency towards capacity restrictions, we can have a customary engagement ceremony,” said Balaguru.
He said the easing of restrictions would allow for more flexibility in the number of guests, though he would still consider limiting the number of attendees as a precautionary measure.
Malaysia will begin its transition into endemic phase from April 1.
Among others, this would entail the removal of the 50% capacity limit for venues to hold events such as weddings, restaurants being allowed to resume their 24-hour operations and the reopening of the country’s borders to international travellers.