Summer Wedding? Don’t Forget Your Social Distancing Wrist Bands
After 2020 nothing much surprises me any more, but I just learned about something called social distancing wristbands for weddings and events and it did catch me off guard.
Apparently, the idea is that the guests at your wedding or event can select a band from one of three colors and their color selection lets everyone else at the event know how comfortable they are in social settings in this brave new world as we emerge from COVID-19 isolation.
The color options are Red, Yellow, and Green. If someone is wearing a Green wristband it indicates that they're pretty comfortable with hugs and hearty handshakes, pretty much back to the normal modes of social interaction from those wonderful pre-pandemic days. If you were comfortable giving this person a big hug before, they're probably ready for another one when you see them at your event.
A Yellow band would be someone who's ready to leave the house but still pretty unsure about this whole social scene after spending a year at home with only their family members and pets. Approach these people with discretion and maybe offer a fist or elbow bump rather than a full-on hug.
Then there's the Red band. These people are still being very cautions and probably just showed up because they couldn't think of a polite reason for declining your invitation. They want to be a part of your big day, but give them some space.
I found a three-pack with 50 band of each color on Amazon for just under a hundred bucks, and a quick check of Pinterest showed literally dozens of options to choose from.
Every day we find new ways of doing things we did without even thinking about it just a year and a half ago. Now when we go to events we'll not only be searching our memories for the names of people we haven't seen in a year or more, but we'll also have to be watching for wristbands to let us know how to comfortably approach them.