In such uncertain times, your wedding day might be the last thing on your mind or the only thing you can think about. Unfortunately, if you were planning on being a spring bride then you have two options, reschedule or cancel your big day. Before you make any rash decisions, here are easy steps to make rescheduling your wedding a breeze!
Keep A Level Head
This may feel like a complete nightmare situation after months of planning and thousands of euro spent, but you can't let yourself get overwhelmed! Have a good cry, eat a pint of ice cream and a pizza with your partner and gather your wits. You've planned one wedding, you've already done the heavy lifting of picking vendors, setting a budget and picking your guest list; yes, this is quite a substantial set back but it's not the end of your relationship or the end of your life! Appreciate that you have your health, your family and your friends and remember that you're going to have your dream wedding eventually!
Pick A New Date
Before you can start getting everything over to a new date you have to figure out when you want it to be moved to. This could be a year from now or 6 months. You may want to pick a specific date for sentimental reasons or something a little more practical, however, you'll have to consider that a startling volume of brides are also rescheduling their wedding days and as a result of that, you can't get too set on a specific date if you don't want your feeling to be hurt. Talk to your partner about if they have a specific time of year or date that they would want to get married on and what are their second or third choices. If you're more flexible and accommodating to your vendors they may be more inclined to schedule you for the date you really want; they're probably just as stressed out and overwhelmed as you are right now!
Call Your Vendors
Don't email or text your vendors, they're going to be in as much panic as you are right now (Keep in mind they're having a few big events cancelling last minute) so a little human compassion over the phone will do leaps and bounds to get your wedding rescheduled efficiently. Keep a level head and be kind and respectful to these businesses and they'll often be kind and respectful to you in return! They may wave the reschedule fee, give you priority of the date you want or throw in an extra to the wedding package as thanks for keeping your business with them. Don't however call them with the sole intention of getting a discount or freebies, they want you to have your wedding with them as much as you do but they need to pay their bill too and this is their source of income!
Plan For The Extra Costs
If I'm being completely honest here, you're going to lose money. A portion of your wedding budget is going to be lost to rescheduling fees, non-refundable deposits and extra unpredicted charges. It's paramount that you keep track of these costs and adjust your budget to accommodate them. If you try to write it off as nothing then you may come to a harsh discovery, months from now, when you're reorganising your wedding and your pockets are €2,000 lighter. Ask your vendors about extra costs if you have to reschedule your wedding for a second time and take that into consideration when adjusting your budget; it may be easier (and cheaper) to cancel your booking and make a brand new one with a different vendor.
Inform Your Family
The sooner you let your family know, the better. If you're lucky then flights, hotels or rental cars won't have been booked yet and so your loved ones won't lose out on money. Keeping everybody in the loop will also ensure that your guests feel you are taking their health and safety into consideration, the longer you leave it the more likely they may feel that you're putting them at risk for the sake of a party.
Reschedule Your Reception
If you can't wait to be legally married to your spouse then cancel the big church wedding and reschedule the reception for a later date. You and your spouse can get married in a very small, intimate and government-approved ceremony with a few witnesses and keep the big family party for a few months from now. Not only will this save you a bit of money, but it also gives you more time to add to or totally rethink your reception plan. It also gives you something to anticipate while you socially distance. This is going to be a story you tell your children and grandchildren for years!
Get Wedding Insurance
In all honestly, we don't know how long COVID-19 social distancing is going to last, you may be able to reschedule your wedding for late Summer but find when the date arrives there's still too much of a health risk for the event to be carried out. Before you put down your laptop take a look at wedding insurance, if you've booked all-new dates with your vendors then it wouldn't hurt to set up a contingency plan in case the uncertain future doesn't yield favourable results.
- Gráinne