Are you thinking of canceling or postponing your wedding due to the coronavirus outbreak? You’re not alone in this. You must have been planning your wedding for months or like some of my couples, one or two years, and you feel very stressed.
The last thing anybody will want is to risk spreading this virus to friends and family. This means any events and celebrations like birthdays, graduations, baby showers, bridal showers, retirement parties, reunions and even funerals need to be cancelled or postponed. To contain the outbreak, everyone needs to make painful sacrifices to avoid the further spread of the virus.
If you have an upcoming wedding in May or June, it is advisable to postpone it. Though it might be hard and frustrating, there are just too many risks to go on with a wedding now, not to mention it is illegal at the moment. You also don’t want to wait until the last minute to execute Plan B. While couples intending to marry later in the summer, July and August or fall and winter, should keep calm and stay current with what the public health officials have to say. Nobody knows how long we will have to self-isolate and maintain social distancing.
Whether you’re postponing or canceling your wedding, is important to reach out to your existing venues and wedding venue(s). Start a conversation with them about their policies in situations like this and discuss with them what happens should you need to cancel or postpone your wedding.
In unprecedented situations like this, when no one has been through it before, communication is key. Whether it is with your wedding vendors or with your guests, keep in touch with everyone. If you have a wedding website, that’s great! Remind your guests to check back to see any updates as things can change quickly.
Here are some tips and points to consider when you’re canceling or postponing your upcoming event or wedding.
- If you have a wedding planner, lucky you! He/she can take a whole lotta stress off your shoulders! Communicate with her what your wishes are in regards to your upcoming wedding. And ask for his/her advice.
- If you don’t have a wedding planner, you might want to reach out to one to help you with changing your plans. You can think about hiring the wedding planner for this period of transition and postponement or hire her to help with the rest of the planning. Different planners have different packages and offerings.
- Stay updated on government mandates that bounds gatherings and physical distancing.
- Keep an open mind to all possibilities.
- Remember that there are humans on both sides of the equation. Whether you’re the client or the vendor, it is important to understand everyone will have to work together and both parties will have to sacrifice some things or others. So try to approach the situation in a calm and compassionate way. Try to find a middle ground with your vendors or clients to solve the situation in front of you.
- Your biggest vendor is probably your venue so reach out to them first. If you need to postpone and find a new date. Decide which month you would like to get married and ask them for available dates.
- Once you have the possible dates, email all your vendors to ask them which dates they’re still available and see which date is the most feasible among your vendors.
- Try rescheduling instead of canceling your wedding. Some of our couples are having a very intimate ceremony and signing of marriage documents on their original wedding date this year and postponing their big celebration with their family and friends to 2021.
- Keep calm and remember what is most important!
Good luck with your wedding planning, all you lovely people. Please be careful, stay safe and healthy!
If you’re a bit lost and don’t have a wedding planner, feel free to shoot me an email and ask questions! I’d love to help give you some direction and advice, just buy me a coffee in return 😉 <wink>.
