Governor Cuomo Suggests Marriage Proposals for Valentine’s Day followed by Weddings in March

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo today revealed the state’s proposed ‘safe marriage receptions’ initiative which would allow those who’ve tested negative for COVID-19 to participate in such events.

It would begin on March 15 and be allowed an attendance of 50 percent (with a maximum of 150 individuals) of the participating venue pending approval from the local health department.

The Governor said that a related app is in development which would presumably help in the process of proving that one has tested negative.

Mr. Cuomo also suggested that folks might want to consider marriage proposals for Valentine’s followed b a marriage reception on March 15.

“I don’t want to create any pressure for anyone, especially undue pressure. I don’t want to create any personal pressure,” said Mr. Cuomo. “I don’t believe that’s government’s role to create personal pressure. Here’s an idea that you may want to consider: Restaurants are open on Valentine’s Day, you could make a reservation now or plan dinner on Valentine’s Day. You propose on Valentine’s Day and then you can have the wedding ceremony March 15, up to 150 people. People will actually come to your wedding because you can tell them with the testing it will be safe. Everybody there will have been tested, everyone will be safe.” 

“Get engaged on Valentine’s Day on the restaurants reopening and March 15 you can have the wedding. 150 people. New York State is exploring a low-cost New York State engagement ring that we would actually make available. It was a hard to put an I Love New York little COVID remembrance – that’s not true.”

This all follows on the success of the pilot plan proposed in December 2020 and carried out twice this month on January 9 and 16. On both dates, thousands of fans were allowed to attend the Buffalo Bills’ football playoff games as long as they tested negative for COVID-19.

Numerous times, the Governor suggested that the success of this test could open the doors to other events whilst we continued to live under the threat of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“We demonstrated it in Buffalo at the Buffalo Bills playoff game. Seven thousand people tested before they went into the stadium. We’ve had virtually no cases of spread from that game, 7,000 people. We’re not going to have the full vaccine for many, many months. In New York, we want to use testing as the key to reopening events and we tested it in Buffalo and we want to start to extend it.”

“Going forward, we are very excited about the possibility of reopening venues with testing. We demonstrated it in Buffalo at the Buffalo Bills playoff game. Seven thousand people tested before they went into the stadium. We’ve had virtually no cases of spread from that game, 7,000 people. We’re not going to have the full vaccine for many, many months. In New York, we want to use testing as the key to reopening events and we tested it in Buffalo and we want to start to extend it.”

In a sense, this is an indirect answer to a Twitter question we’ve posed to the Governor for weeks now. We’ve asked what, if any, penalties would New Yorkers face if they refused to get the Coronavirus vaccine. Would they be prohibited from carrying out certain tasks/jobs or disallowed from entering certain venues? Whether through an answer to our question or through that which the Governor proposes, one ends up having to prove that one is safe. Safe to participate, safe to attend.