How To Reschedule Your Wedding During COVID-19

You’ve been planning your wedding for quite a while now – perhaps even a couple of years. This plot twist of a worldwide pandemic is not something you anticipated for your special day and now you’re stuck with a venue you can’t use, guests who can’t travel, and a cake that won’t be baked.

You’ve got to postpone, but where do you start?

Here are some helpful tips from wedding professionals and couples who’ve gone through it already.

If you invested in wedding insurance for your big day, now is the time to pull out your policy and review the information. Contact your wedding insurance provider to clarify whether or not your policy covers situations like postponements due to crises or not and ask what should be done next.

Next, and potentially most important, if you haven’t already done so, check in with your vendors. It’s important to verify that you can postpone with them without significant losses to your budget. Most vendors are working with folks, knowing that postponing is the most responsible thing to do for couples who desire to move forward with a larger number of guests than 10.

If you’ve hired one, contact your wedding planner for help. They are able to help you negotiate new dates, navigate through the many challenging aspects of shifting, and deal with things involved in your contracts with various vendors.

“Just [return] to love. The core of a wedding is the love and commitment between two people, and I’ve found that when my couples have shifted from the stress, disappointment, and deflation to a position of strength – just being ok in each other’s arms – the path forward is much easier…” suggests wedding planner Kecia Wilson.

“Just [return] to love. The core of a wedding is the love and commitment between two people, and I’ve found that when my couples have shifted from the stress, disappointment, and deflation to a position of strength – just being ok in each other’s arms – the path forward is much easier…” – Kecia Wilson, owner of Three Little Birds Weddings

Before you can continue with anything else, you need to choose your new wedding date. As you connect with your vendors, family, and wedding party, this new date is critical. Work with your vendors to find a date that works for the majority of them and for your guests. They need to be available for this new date or you will need to change vendors, which means you will lose any deposits you’ve paid.

Once you’ve made the decision to postpone, your guests need to be informed. The new date and/or other plans should be communicated immediately so that guests can change theirs accordingly.

There are three primary ways you can do this:

1. If you have one, change the information on your wedding website. Consider offering valuable information (such as hotel refunds, postponement deals, etc.), as well.
2. Send emails out with the new information.
3. Split up your guest list between you, your partner, and anyone else willing to help, and call to inform all your guests personally of the changes.

“We never considered eloping and I’m tired of Zoom. We’ll wait to throw the big party when we can.” – Amanda McCracken, professional writer

When you’ve been planning something as important as your wedding day, you should expect to grieve when your plans change. This is normal and even healthy. When those moments of pain hit you, let them. You are experiencing a loss. There was a reason you chose this wedding date. It’s yours now. It’s okay to be disappointed or angry. The world is in chaos, but you should feel what you’re feeling and know that they are valid.

The wedding date you selected was important for you, even though you have now chosen to postpone. One writer, Amanda McCracken, chose to postpone her wedding for a future date, faced some challenges and disappointments. She and her partner still celebrated their would-be wedding date at their venue with a photoshoot. “We never considered eloping and I’m tired of Zoom. We’ll wait to throw the big party when we can.”

Your other option is not to postpone but hold a small ceremony at your home, the original venue, a friend’s house, a special spot that wasn’t suitable for your planned shindig or virtually.

There are many creative ways this can be done that create a beautiful ceremony even without that 150+ guest list you’ve dreamed of. If you do choose to marry now, you can postpone the reception to that future date.

Whether you opt for a small ceremony via Zoom or postpone the entire ceremony and celebration until some future date, the most important thing is your love. Focus on that in this challenging time. Breathe into, rest in it, and allow yourself to grieve the loss of your special day together. Remember that you have each other, and that’s what matters most.