An Irish bride-to-be has been left devastated after the government measures to control the coronavirus left her having to cut her wedding invitations in half.
Caroline Dullea is set to marry her fiancé Brendan Whelan next week at the Carrigaline Court Hotel in Co Cork.
However, with the latest government advice to limit indoor social gatherings to a maximum of 100 people, the couple must make the difficult decision to uninvite many of their family and friends.
Caroline said: “I was in work listening to the radio when I heard Leo Varadkar’s emergency statement on the coronavirus.
“All the lads there have kids so they were worried about that, but I heard the bit about indoor events not being allowed to have more than 100 people and I nearly had a meltdown.
“I called the hotel and they confirmed the bad news.”
Now Caroline and Brendan must cut their guest list from 155 to 98, with the newlyweds themselves making up the 99th and 100th people at the gathering.
Caroline said: “It’s very upsetting because my cousin is getting married the same day as me so I was already down about 50 guests I wanted to invite.
“I had 200 coming including the afters but now I have to halve that.
“I don’t want to have to choose between my family and friends, I don’t want to sit down with a list and start crossing people off.”
The couple have sent messages to their invited guests explaining the awkward situation and giving people the opportunity to pull out themselves.
Caroline said: “In the last 10 minutes I’ve had 12 people cancel. A few of them have underlying health conditions, they have kids or they are pregnant.”
She is also concerned about whether or not her brother will be able to get a flight back from Australia to attend the wedding.
She said: “For Leo Varadkar to be over in America cancelling all these events is a joke. He should be in Ireland dealing with the situation, not wining and dining in another country.”
