Steps to take if you have to postpone your wedding due to Covid19

Photo by Andrea Flanagan

If you set a date for your wedding and have had to postpone it due to the current events going on in the world, you’re probably feeling a range of emotions. While It’s normal to feel sad, angry and disappointed, know that you will still have your dream wedding day – there are just a few adjustments that need to be made first.  Remember, if you are a couple of ours, we are there with you!

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What to consider when postponing your wedding

Photo by Jeanine Thurston.

Get a Professional Involved:  If you’ve been working with a wedding planner up until this point, they’re the first person you should turn to at this time. Working with a wedding planner can help take some of the pressure off when you’re already feeling upset about the postponement. The last thing you want to do is make emotional decisions. By letting a third party help you, it will be easier to make logical decisions about what to do next.

Get Realistic About Your Financials:  Unfortunately, when there’s a change of plans, it can result in financial losses. You may be able to negotiate with your venue and vendors so that you lose little to no further money. However, it’s still best to have realistic expectations and many of the deposits (rather first payments) are nonrefundable. And, there is a chance that you might lose money or need to pay extra to make the necessary adjustments.  To minimize the financial impact of rescheduling, you’ll want to look at 2020 dates using the same venue, vendors, and logistics (more on this below)  

Get In Touch with Your Venue:  If you would prefer to start looking at new dates, get in touch with your venue about availability. Again, it’s best to have realistic expectations. If your venue is popular, you may need to wait several months for a new date.  Alternately, consider non-peak days of the week, for example Sundays through Thursdays.  Have several possible dates in mind for when you contact vendors as you’ll want to make sure they they also will have availability.  If you don’t want to wait, you can always look at new venues, but consider that you would likely be losing your deposit. 

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Photo by Andrea Flanagan. Intimate wedding at Denver Botanic Gardens.

Photo by Andrea Flanagan. Intimate Wedding Package by Custom Weddings of Colorado.

Get In Touch with Your Vendors:  Once you’ve been in touch with both your wedding planner and your venue, you can start making arrangements with each of your vendors (your planner may be able to do a portion of this for you). If your vendors can’t accommodate your new date, you may need to start the search all over again. There is also a chance that you may incur some losses here if you need to switch vendors. You may want to work with your vendors and your venue together if you want to have better chances of finding a date that works for everyone. 

Send Out Change the Date Cards:  Next, you want to make sure that your guests know about the postponement. If you haven’t yet picked a new date, you can simply let guests know that they will find out about a new date soon. If you’ve already picked a new date, include it on your Change the Date cards. The sooner you can let guests know, the better, particularly if they’re traveling from afar.  Since I plan small intimate weddings and elopements, many of our couples don’t even send out invitations.  Rather, they call their guests.  So, get them on the line and make that personal connection that is so needed in these times!

These are the main factors to consider when postponing your wedding. If you’ve already planned your honeymoon, don’t forget to make the necessary arrangements there too.  Once you’ve gotten the big adjustments out of the way, you can start looking forward to your big day all over again.   I wish you all the best ~ Wendee

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