What to do when you need to postpone your wedding.

How to Postpone your wedding

Colorado Wedding Photographer’s guide to postponing your wedding due to COVID-19.

Okay, so this is a post I would NEVER have thought to write before a few weeks ago. However, with how much the world has changed in just a short amount of time, here we are writing a post on how to postpone your wedding.

First, if you are getting married this year and feel like certain experiences have been taken from you. You are completely valid in feeling this way. Regardless of the reason, you are allowed to feel sad about the state of the world and the personal changes it has caused.

Second, this is heartbreaking. This sucks for everyone involved and I’m sorry it happened to you. I mean that. While we weren’t planning a wedding this year, we are expecting in July, so we know the heartbreak of sudden disruption and change of plans. We’re here with you and for you.

Now that, that has been said, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. So, your wedding has been impacted by COVID-19. What do you do now? You spent so long planning, and now you just got thrown a whole new issue to deal with. And there you were, thinking your biggest obstacle would be guest asking for a plus one!!

Well, we’re here to help with mini-guide on what to do to postpone your wedding.

Follow the rules & regulations

Keep yourself, your guest, and your vendors safe. If there is a ‘stay-at-home’ order or ban on events in your area, listen to it. We covered above that it does SUCK to postpone, but honestly it’s for the better. There have been multiple stories about whole families getting sick from a family dinner.

Grab those contracts

First things first, pull out all of those contracts that you have from vendors. Read over them and highlight what their rescheduling policy is. If there is a force majeure clause, read that too. This is going to be your starting point of where to go. That part of the contract should lay out how everything is going to happen and if there will be a fee or not.

If the contract does not have a rescheduling policy. It is a little up in the air, so reaching out to your vendors will be the next step.

Reach out to your vendors

The first vendor you will want to reach out to is your venue. See what new dates they have available and ask to put a ‘soft-hold’ on one or two of the dates.

The same day, reach out to your vendors. Let them know about the change of date and see if they are available on the new date you had in mind.

If all of your vendors are, secure the new date as soon as possible. 2021 is looking to be a VERY busy year with normal weddings and rescheduled weddings, vendors may book faster than normal. Typically photographers book 8-12 months in advance; however, for 2021 I am booking up weddings up to 18 months in advance!

If there is a specific vendor you REALLY do not want to lose. Reach out to them first, get a few dates they are available, and work from there.

Let your guest know

While it will be ideal to have a new date set before you let your guests know, it is important to keep them in the loop. So if you are not quite sure when the new date will be, be sure to send out some postponement notices. Some may still be planning on attending and letting them know the date is changing is a must. If you have a new date, sending new save the date cards is a great way to do so. There are some really cute postponed, change the date, and save the new date cards out there.

Celebrate your ‘wedding day’

Even if you had to change the date you imagined, would be your wedding day, you should celebrate the day anyway! Get dressed up, get some takeout, and celebrate your love.

5 years from now, this will have passed and you will have a great story to look back on. Be flexible, be adaptable, and be positive. Being positive might not be the easiest at times, but it will help uplift your mood during these hard times.