What Should You do When Postponing Your Wedding Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
wedding planning tips
Because of corona-virus global pandemic, many couples who are getting married in spring and summer are forced to postpone and reschedule their weddings so as to move forward during this trying time. To help you with that, here’s something important need to know if you are about to postpone your wedding date.
Postpone or Cancel?
Financially we don’t recommend couples to cancel their events, that will risk a big lose for both the couple and the vendors who rely on the event for income. Instead, couples can work with their vendors to postpone it to a later date. The vendors are ready and willing to adapt and work with clients to postpone plans.
Who should call for a postpone?
According to public health officials, April, May, and June brides whose weddings are within 8-12 weeks are suggested to postpone their weddings.
If your wedding is beyond 8-12 weeks out expect your suppliers to be resolving immediately due weddings in the first instance, and stay updated on government mandates that limit gatherings and how long they are projected.
How to postpone your wedding?
1. Check your wedding insurance if you have one
If you have insurance, Your first call should be to your insurance company to explore what your policy covers and what it means for your vendor relationships.
Some items to look out for include:
- How much of the total wedding cost does your policy cover, and does it cover postponement or cancellation costs or change fees?
- What circumstances are covered in the event your need to postpone or cancel?
- What if the honeymoon needs to be canceled or postponed—will the insurance costs cover this?
2. Talk to your wedding planner/venue coordinator/key vendors.
If you have a planner, this is the first person you should talk to about the possibility of postponement. They will be very helpful to help you navigate any of those changes along the way. If you don’t have a planner, speak with your venue or key vendor.
The key to these conversations with your vendors is empathy. But it’s also important for you to have empathy for their situation, as well. Your vendors are probably dealing with an influx of calls just like yours, so try to be patient.
Necessary steps you should do before reach out to your vendors/planners
—Reread all contracts you have with vendors: understand your vendor contracts and postponement clauses, then check in with your vendors so you’re prepared either way.
—Be ready for additional costs: Be mindful of the additional time and work when you make that change. Vendors are doing their best to work with couples changing their plans due to corona-virus, but they should be compensated in some way depending on the change or changes.
-Be flexible when picking a new date: This will help increase the possibility of vendors and venues being available and help with some other costs you didn’t have locked in. And don’t wait too long to pick a new date. Many couples are in the same boat right now, looking to reschedule their events.
***It could be helpful to create a spreadsheet to track everything. Reach out to your venue first to see the dates that are viable for you there, and then send those out to photographer, videographer, and your other vendors who are the most important to you. You’ll then be able to see what will work best right in front of you.
3. Talk to your close family and wedding party.
If you haven’t already, talk to your inner circle first to let them know you’re postponing. This includes both your immediate families and wedding party. You can use these important people in your life as a “working group” to come up with a new date, depending on when works best for everyone’s schedules.
4. Let your guests know.
Inform your guests as soon as you make a decision about you wedding so that guests can adjust their plans accordingly. Unlike a typical canceled or changed wedding, everyone knows what is going on here, and people have been extremely understanding.
Here are some ways to inform your guests:
—Post updates to your wedding website and email guests: If you have a wedding website, update it with the postponed date and other information. A simple message that’s to-the-point is best.
—Send out a postponement card: Consider sending a postponement card to your guests, either by a digital or a paper postponement card.
—Set an FAQ section on the website: It may even be worth pulling together an FAQ section on the website, as guests may have a lot of the same questions regarding a rescheduled date, how to handle canceling accommodations and more.
5. Consider how you can help your guests
When it comes to accommodations, we suggest the couple offer as much support to their guests as possible, as many of them may have booked airline travel and hotel rooms. We encourage couples to connect with their wedding planners, to help negotiate a cancellation or a full or partial refund to guests. Try to be as understanding as possible of your guest’s concerns and schedules without stressing yourself out more.
6. Start rethink the details
Start rethink all small details that will be affected by postponig once everything is in place.
Elegant Wedding Invites is here to help
We want all of our customers to know that Elegant Wedding Invites is closely monitoring news reports from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about the COVID-19 virus and we are taking precautionary measures to ensure the health and safety of our customers and employees.
We hope to help all of you a little bit during this difficult time.
- All the new and current orders will be processed normally.
- Free proof preview before ordering.
- More rounds of free amendment on proofs.
- Customized samples available for unlimited numbers.
- Hold your orders for free if the date of marriage is uncertain.
- Favorable discounts for reprint order.
- Wording ink or paper colors customizable.
- Some other supplier, such as masks and alcohol prep pads.
- Feel free to contact us for any questions.
