6 Steps To Take When Postponing Or Rescheduling Your Wedding
Deciding to postpone your wedding can feel like such a big decision and quite a large undertaking. After all, there’s so much planning that goes into a wedding and so there may be more to navigate than just choosing a new date.
Postponing your wedding not only impacts you and your fiance, but also your family, friends, wedding party, venue, and vendors.
But at times, it’s absolutely necessary and so we’ve compiled our five key steps to postpone a wedding to make this process just a bit easier for you.
Talk It Over With Your Fiance ASAP (And Loop In Your Family And Bridal Party)
Depending on how far out your wedding is, you may have some key players in your wedding involved at this point.
Be sure you and your fiance are on the same page and then be sure to let your key family members and your wedding party know that postponement is in the works.
This may mean you’ll get some texts, emails, and calls. But it also means you’ll have a group of people ready to help you as the process of moving your wedding goes forward.
Review Your Contracts And Contact Your Venue, Vendors, Hotels, and Suppliers
If you’ve been working with a wedding planner now is the time to make contact with them. If not, be sure that you and your fiance go through your contracts and know your rights and what you need to understand about rescheduling with your vendors, venue, and anyone else who is involved in your wedding.
It may help to compile a list of potential questions for each vendor. Ask them about rescheduling, costs associated with date changes, and whether there are circumstances where you can’t reschedule. If you’re rescheduling due to a national emergency or other related events, be sure to ask your venue and vendors about that particular issue.
Select Your New Date And Consider Your Flexibility
One of the biggest challenges you may face when rescheduling your wedding is finding a date that works for you, your wedding party, your family, your vendors and your venue.
It may help to be a bit flexible with your day of the week or your month of choice. But if you’ve paid deposits you don’t want to lose or have your heart set on THAT venue, it also may come down to your key vendors’ availability.
For example, if you love your videographer you’ll probably want them to be a part of your wedding. But if your new wedding date falls on a Friday and they’re not available, you may have a problem to address when it comes to the deposit you’ve already paid that vendor and the experience you know they bring to the day.
Ideally, you’d love to reschedule when all of your key players are available, so be sure you have a few dates to offer them and keep records of who is available when. If it’s possible to keep your venue and vendor team intact, that’s fantastic.
If not, you’ll want to revisit your vision for the day and decide which vendors you truly want to be there. This clarity about your vision for the day can be an amazing tool as you navigate selecting your new date.
Let Your Guests Know
This step could come before or after you talk to your vendors.
Some people like to wait until they’ve confirmed the new date to tell their guests, but if your wedding was coming up in the next six months or less, you may want to be sure you tell your guests as soon as you know your wedding will be postponed.
Wondering how to tell your guests?
Mindy Weiss, a celebrity wedding planner suggests “ If you have postponed it and you have another date you need to let people know immediately. If you do not have another date but you know you’re going to postpone it, then you should send out either a paperless post, a text, ‘due to the coronavirus… more info to follow…’ ”
The important thing is to make sure everyone involved knows about the postponing of the wedding because things like time, travel, hotel stays, and flight arrangements are involved.
Get Your Planning Team Back Together And Look At All Of Your Day-Of Details Again
Whether you have a wedding planner or not, you’ll want to talk to your venue, caterers, DJ, photographer, and other relevant wedding day people to revisit the details of your big day.
The benefit of reviewing all your details is that you’ll be sure you haven’t missed a beat with your rescheduled wedding. Plus, your new date may mean some visual changes and you’ll want to have everyone on the same page.
For example, if your floral arrangements or other decorations were designed to coincide with the season of your initial wedding date, you may choose to change things up when you choose a new date.
Go over each piece of your wedding day as if you’re planning it for the first time and be sure to make your vendors, venue, bridal party, and other key players aware of the changes you’ve made.
Celebrate Your New Day Your Way
Whether you move your whole event back a year or move your summer wedding to the fall, it can be an experience full of challenging emotions.
As you go through each of the steps we’ve described, be sure that you give yourself some time to celebrate your love all over again. And when your big day finally comes, be sure to celebrate your way.
As celebrity wedding planner Mindy Weiss (who has worked with everyone from Russell Wilson to Hailey and Justin Beiber) says “This is going to be your story! Like, ‘Oh, remember back in 2020…?’ But after a while, no one’s going to want to hear about it anymore, they’re going to be looking forward to your new date, to your wedding, to celebrate—move on. It’s time to move on and get to the happy place.”
Embracing your wedding day story can make it even more meaningful and remind you of why you’re with your fiance in the first place:
You’re always in this together.
And We’re Here To Help You Celebrate
Whether you decide to postpone your wedding by a few months or a year, if you’re looking to add unique touches to your wedding, we’re here to help make that happen.
Have a question about your wedding? You can connect with us here.