The number of people allowed at weddings in Tier 3 of the city’s reopening plan might increase to 25 from the current 10.

Mayor Rick Blangiardi planned to ask for a meeting early next week with Gov. David Ige and state Health Director Libby Char to discuss the Tier 3 restrictions for weddings.

“I’m prepared to go back to the State Department of Health and say, ‘You know, can we just have 25 people as a structured event,’ and we know the protocols, we’ll adhere to those,” Blangiardi said Friday on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii.

In the initial modifications for Tier 3 that lifted capacity for funerals and allowed organized sports to resume, officials thought that due to the celebratory nature of weddings, it would not be prudent to increase capacity.

“With the kissing and hugging and dancing and all of that, there was just really concern about the intimacy of that,” Blangiardi said.

The mayor was told by officials who planned the tier system that when it was being created, it was not clear that the city would ever get out of Tier 1, so there was a “certain amount of guesswork” that went into crafting Tiers 3 and 4. When the tier system was rolled out in September by former Mayor Kirk Caldwell, vaccines were also not yet available, and were not expected to be distributed until summer 2021 or early fall.

Although the wedding industry held a demonstration Thursday outside Honolulu Hale, Blangiardi said that was not the only reason he is now considering taking this request to the governor.

“I was wanting to wait a little bit,” he said. “We want to see the impact of the modifications. Our sports haven’t started yet, and just to be sure the numbers stay safe.”

Outdoor youth sports will resume April 12, and outdoor adult sports will resume April 19.

Indoor sports will not be permitted until Oahu moves to Tier 4 which would require the seven-day average new-case count to remain below 20 and the island’s seven-day positivity rate to stay under 1% for two weeks.

Blangiardi also addressed the Honolulu rail program, which was recently found to have some defects, requiring a portion of the tracks to likely be changed out, potentially delaying the opening of the project another year.

Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation interim CEO Lori Kahikina notified the mayor that the rail project up to Aloha Stadium would be turned over to the city by the end of the year, leaving it up to Blangiardi to decide whether to start service up to that area.

However, with the recently found defects and the rail being able to service only up to Aloha Stadium, Blangiardi leaned against starting service as soon as it is available.

“I’m not going to just simply arbitrarily say, ‘As soon as it’s ready to operate, we’ll start operating it.’ That is still up in the air. We’re going to make a lot of determinations based on things that we’re learning now,” he said.

“Right now, today, in all honesty and as candid as I can be, I don’t know if that’s possible.”

The cost of rail has ballooned to $12.4 billion, and the completion date is now March 2031.