Cancel or Postpone your wedding?

After months or a year of planning, it’s hard to decide to cancel or postpone your wedding. 

The news started surfacing about a flu-like illness, but you kept remained cautiously optimistic that the virus wouldn’t spread across the globe and so close to you.  Then you started to see reports about the rise of cases near to you and probably asked yourself if you could naively hope to go ahead with our nuptials but with reduced attendance. Well… immediately you knew that it was time to call the whole thing off. 

Cancel or Postpone?

Dismantling a wedding is no joke. Ask for help if you don’t have a wedding planner.

Email all your vendors and email your guests and let them know that your plans had changed.

Think about the best option for you. Cancel your wedding it’s not an option if you still want to share your love with your guests. So, think about the best date. Maybe by the end of the year 2020 or start thinking in 2021.

Postpone is 100% the way to go. Step one, read your venue contract to see their policy on rescheduling. Most venues are doing their best to accommodate couples but have in mind that most of their prime dates have already been filled. 

One of the main things you need to consider is the health of your guests attending. You may find that your guest numbers drop due to travel restrictions or elderly family members not feeling comfortable going to large gatherings at the moment.

Cancelling has a trickle effect and serious financial ramifications. You not only run into the risk of losing all of your deposits but potentially a lot more based on the contracts signed with various vendors.

What is the best way to keep guests updated?

Have a wedding website so you can keep people updated continuously, and they can refer to this as the first point of call,” Cullen suggests. “So any updates can be mass-shared live with people, and you can give any advice or guidance for travel, health, and safety. 

Or, if you have your new date, mail your Postponement card.

What about wedding insurance, do I need to get that?

If you have wedding insurance, then it is likely you will be covered if your venue has to close or if the registrars stop conducting ceremonies. It will be challenging to get through at the moment but stick with it and talk to your insurer. Hopefully, the main insurers will be publishing clear guidelines. As the situation changes with government advice, so will the insurance position.

If you don’t have insurance, it will be more tricky but talk to your venue as the first point of call and understand what they are doing. There will not be ideal solutions, and it may mean switching to an off-peak date later in the year. Remember, venues are juggling all their couples and will be under a lot of pressure to see this through as a business.

All couples still want to have their day, and that is the key, love is the key. It’s all about trying to be really flexible, practical, and work together with venues, vendors, florists, stationery, and other suppliers to make sure that couples all have their amazing day even if it is at a later date.

Did you cancel a wedding? Let us know about your experience in the comments.