Navigating Your Wedding Postponement

Navigating Postponement Background Photo Courtesy Isabelle Selby

So this insane pandemic has come to town and you’ve decided to postpone your wedding. It was not fun, but it was smart and the right thing to do. I’m proud of you. (If you haven’t yet decided to postpone, start your reading at our previous post, “To Postpone or Not to Postpone Your Wedding.”

So let’s now go through what’s next… these aren’t pleasant pills I’ll admit- but just keep breathing and we will get through it together.

If you’d like hands-on help discussing your options; if you are needing to reformat your wedding vision to fulfill safety guidelines, let The Get Together Events Co. help. TGT is now offering Covid Coordination, for anyone going through these tough times. This wasn’t supposed to be part of the wedding planning process… Lets go through it together.

(NOTE: the following thoughts were updated on 5.10.20. In this ever-evolving time, please refer to your city’s current safer-at-home orders and CDC directions. TGT does not have a crystal ball or a medical license so the below are solely our suggestions as event professionals with the knowledge we have at this time).

HOW TO NAVIGATE POSTPONEMENT

First, reach out to TGT (or your wedding planner) first as we can assist you in navigating the postponement waters.

Second, your venue needs to be contacted to start the immediate search of finding a new date.

Finding your new date- consider non-Saturdays!

Before the Covid-19 crisis, folks were already booking Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 weddings dates. So a Saturday might not be available for you either at your venue, or with your vendors. We encourage you to look at other days- Friday and Sunday also being great options!
Please note that you can get married ANY day of the week. People will show up, people will celebrate with you. Heck, you might even get some vendor discounts out of it.
For your vendors, if you are needing to postpone until 2021, additional fees may apply as booking into next year will keep your vendors from booking new 2021 business, thus hurting them financially.
- If you do rebook for 2021, please consider paying your vendors on your original date, to help them keep their doors open through 2020 and available for you in 2021!

Expect a busy late 2020.

(Assuming we can get back to it by then), late 2020 will be busy. For you, your guests and your vendors. Everyone will be packing in a year’s worth of activities in 6 months (or so), so plan for a busy calendar. What this means:
- For you. Your planning might be consolidated into a shorter period of time, so plan ahead. Get all of your last minute meetings on the calendar ahead of time!
- For your guests. It is possible that there will now be more conflicting obligations with your wedding date. More back-to-back weddings might mean that guests have to choose which weddings they attend. On top of what we expect to be ongoing travel caution, we believe this busy calendar will impact wedding guest counts.
- For your vendors. Because just about all spring weddings have been postponed, this also means your vendors will be working overtime to fulfill all their client needs. Please be patient. For your hair trial, book early. For your florals, understand desired flowers might be hard to come by. For your party favors, order as soon as you know what you want. For emails, please wait 24 hours for a response. Overall, we recommend practicing patience and grace. We have all gone through this trying time together and I PROMISE all of your vendors will be doing their darndest for you.

Your new wedding will be different from your originally planned wedding.

This is not a bad thing. We as a society have all gone through this shared experience together and because of that, we will all bring new insights and feelings to your wedding.
The one thing I can promise you though, is that when we finally get to celebrate- you and your guests will have EXTRA cause for celebration and it will be magnificent. Get ready for an overjoyed and sweaty dance floor. We cannot wait to celebrate with (and hug) you.