Weddings as we know them are up in the air for the foreseeable future.

Between stay-at-home orders, social distancing guidelines, financial hardships, fears about traveling and venue closures, many engaged couples will have to adjust their original wedding plans and that may include cutting down their guest lists.

Under normal circumstances, it would be in very poor taste to uninvite a wedding guest after theyve already received a save-the-date or invitation. But were not dealing with normal circumstances.

I couldnt have ever imagined myself giving a blessing for a couple to uninvite already invited wedding guests, and yet here we are in uncharted territory, etiquette columnist Thomas P. Farley , also known as Mister Manners, told HuffPost. Etiquette is adapting to meet many scenarios we could not have envisioned at the beginning of the year, and this is surely one of them.

Think you may need to downsize your guest list in light of the pandemic? Communicating this information to invited guests in a thoughtful, tactful manner should cushion the blow. Heres how to do just that, according to etiquette experts.

Be honest but compassionate in your delivery.

Let them know it was a difficult decision to make. After careful consideration of all your options, this seemed like the best way to protect your loved ones health and safety.

All uninvited guests should be reassured that the decision to pare down the guest list was made after great deliberation and surely many sleepless nights, Farley said. But the choice was made to ensure the couples big day was not a factor in anyones becoming sick.

Keep your explanation brief. Sure, there may be additional reasons that factored into your decision, but you dont need to list them all.

For example, the couples suddenly altered finances are no longer able to sustain the big wedding they imagined, Farley said. I would focus on the health of the guests as the primary reason for the change, which most everyone will understand and appreciate without further elaboration.

In fact, you might be surprised by how many people will not only understand, but may actually be relieved, said etiquette expert Diane Gottsman, author of Modern Etiquette for a Better Life and founder of The Protocol School of Texas.

They might have had difficulty traveling to your wedding from out of state, she said. Or they could be going through similar situations of their own financially.

Keep it fair.

Create an across-the-board rule for how youre reducing the guest list like keeping it to just immediate family and the bridal party, for example. That way uninvited guests wont take your decision personally.

Its essential that no couple use the pandemic as a rationale for knocking merely a few select names from a list, Farley said. There must be a rhyme and reason to the paring down, applied universally, so there are no hurt feelings.

Let guests know as soon as youre able.