How To Postpone Your Wedding
Postponing your wedding is something which shouldn’t be taken lightly. This is why I have complied a list of everything you need to consider when doing so. This post is designed to guide you step by step on how best to postpone your big day.
Remember you will have your dream wedding day whether that should of been in 4 weeks time or now in 4 months time. I know it must be ridiculously frustrating, worrying and challenging, but remember the health of yourselves, your guests and your suppliers is paramount.
I understand how hard it must be having to face re-planning all of your wedding details. You have spend the last 6 months – 1 year pulling these together and co-ordinating everything to perfection. However, it is important to make sure you don’t over look any aspect of your big day.
Wedding Insurance
The first thing you need to do is contact your wedding insurance company. It is vital to get an understanding from them if you have any cover in regards to Covid-19 and what this may include.
- Ask them if you are covered for postponing your wedding.
- Question if your insurance covers you for changing suppliers or losing suppliers due to having to reschedule your date.
- Do ask if you were to lose any deposits, due to your postponement, if you would be reimbursed for this.
Be mindful that they may not have all the answers straight away, as this is a new topic for them to.
Your Venue
- The next step is to contact your venue. If your wedding is in April or May, you will need to be looking to do this ASAP.
- Firstly, work out what time of year you would like to reschedule your wedding day for. It is worth noting that your venue may not be able to offer you a like for like date, as they may already be pre-booked for summer Saturday’s in 2021.
- Consider how flexible you can be, would you be happy with a mid-week summer date next year or an autumn date later this year? It’s good to of had this discussion with your partner prior to speaking to your venue.
- Be mindful that there will be other couples in a similar situation to you. Your venue co-ordinator will be just as disappointed as you are that you’re having to postpone, so be kind to them.
- Once you have finalised a new date ask your venue to reserve this for you in their diary. Always make sure to get written confirmation of this.
- You now need to contact your other suppliers to see if they can accommodate your date change.
- Check with your main wedding guests to make sure they can attend your new wedding date.
Your Key Suppliers
When we talk about your key suppliers, we are talking about the suppliers you just can’t see your wedding without! It is now important that you contact each supplier, with your new wedding date.
- Suppliers to consider contacting 1st are – your church/registrar/celebrant conducting your ceremony, caterer and photographer. Contact these 1st as they are more likely to have a large number of weddings to reschedule in their diary.
- Discuss revised payment plans – some suppliers may ask you to stick to your payment plans as usual (this will help with their forecast cash flow and keep them afloat during the next few months). They may ask you to pay part of your final payment now and the other in the final weeks before your new wedding date. It is important to ask this now so you can plan ahead.
- If your suppliers can’t accommodate your date change, you need to decide how important they are to your day. You either need to discuss their availability and go back to your venue with new date suggestions or find a new supplier who can accommodate your new date.
- Be mindful that if your supplier can’t accommodate your date change you will most probably lose your deposit. Unfortunately there really isn’t anything you can do about this.
Extra Help
If you are finding this all too much and overwhelming, I would definitely advise contacting a wedding planner for advice. They will be able to take all of this off of your hands. They will liaise between your venue and suppliers to arrange a new date on your behalf. Taking the pressure off of the both of you in the process.
Contact Your Guests
This can be a long and upsetting process and one you may wish to avoid when postponing your big day.. There are a couple of ways in which you can go about this.
If you have used a stationary designer to create your invitations, I would advise speaking to them before you contact your guests.
- If they haven’t already printed your invitation then you can look to tweak these with your new date.
- Already sent out your invitations? They may be able to help by providing a template email or PDF file (in the style of your invitation) that you can send out to all of your guests with your updated wedding details.
- Alternatively, if you would prefer to send an update via post, they will be able to help you send out an invitation update to all of your guests. Do bare in mind this option will be more costly than an email version due to the cost of production/posting.
However, if this is something you and your partner are taking charge of then you may wish to go about this by;
- Updating your wedding website
- Using a free downloadable template created by a stationer (these can be found on Instagram – lots of stationers are doing everything they can to help, whether you have used them for your stationery or not.)
Important To Consider
I know it may seem hard, but where possible please try not to cancel your big day. It may seem more challenging to reschedule everything at this stage, but remember why you are getting married. Remember why you chose all of your fabulous suppliers in the first place. Don’t be too quick to throw all of your lovely plans out of the window. Your day will be just as amazing as ever, even if you do have to wait another 6 months!
Image by Wynn Davies Photography
Leave a Reply