Your Wedding and COVID-mothereffin19

I couldn't bear to have a serious title for this one. I needed some light heartedness.

First of all, so so SO many good vibes and love for everyone affected by this. We are all in this together, and we will get through it together. It feels so bizarre because literally everyone in the world is going through the same thing at the same time for the first time in a very very long time.

Second of all raise your hand if you're as over this virus as I am. Home girl needs to pack her bags and get gone.

Ok but what does all of this mean for you and your wedding plans?

Last week, Ashley (Aced Events) and I did a LIVE chat on Instagram about postponement and cancellation management during the pandemic, and I wanted to do a quick recap for you!

The main thing that we discussed was timeline. Right now, we are just about to go into the month of April. If your wedding is beyond the last weekend in May, you do not need to be making alternate arrangements yet, and should leave your plans as they are.

If however, your wedding is mid- end May, it is a good time to talk with your venue and vendors about a possible change in plans and have a backup ready to to put into place in case it comes to that.Nationally, as of now, we are aiming to have everything up and running by end of April, so if end of May weddings can hang on until then, that gives plenty of time to make other arrangements if needed. If your wedding is before mid May, you should be postponing to later in the year or next year.

Here are a few tips to help you get through this!

1) Postpone, don't cancel.

Since you have the option of postponement in the future, you are unlikely to get any deposits or retainer fees back since you're opting out of the contract instead of choosing another date. Remember this is just as much out of your venue and vendor's control as yours. You don't want to lose money unnecessarily.

2) When postponing, don't confirm a new date with your venue until you talk to the rest of your other vendors. Prioritize which vendors you can't live without on your wedding day, and try to find a date that works for both you, and them, so that if some of them aren't available on any new date options, you at least have the ones that mean the most to you.

3) Be open to change. This situation sucks. For all of us. Your only option might be to have a fall or winter wedding, and event though that's not what you were going for, its all part of your wedding story. Like it or not, COVID-19 is part of your wedding story right now. But it doesn't need to be a miserable experience. Embrace the change, and be open. It's significantly less stressful that way.

4) COMMUNICATE with your vendors. You have options. Talk to your vendors to see what those are. See what a postponement would look like with your vendors, what would that entail? Maybe you opt to still do an intimate ceremony with just the two of you and your photographer and officiant on your original wedding date, and then do a big wedding at another date. Or maybe you even decide you don't want the big wedding and you want to keep your original date and just "elope" (do a small tiny ceremony with the alotted number of people per gathering) and then spend the day with your photographer and cinematographer if you have one (6 feet apart though!) and do some off the grid portraits that you wouldn't be able to do on a normal wedding day.

Talk to all of your vendors about what you're thinking, or ask them what they recommend, and get the info on what that would mean for you as far as your contracts are concerned.

5) If you don't already have one, hire a planner. Most of them are offering small packages to specifically help with postponement or cancellation management- so they would do all of the communicating with your venue, and vendors to make new arrangements if needed. And they can guide you on when you need to be taking what actions during this time.

6) Stay calm. No one knows whats going on, but we need to take it one step at a time, and we are all better together. You've got this, just lean on your vendors because they can help you through this, this is literally their job.

I hope that was helpful, and as always, I'm here if you need anything at all!!!