The Five Steps to Postpone your Wedding

Firstly, I hope you’re all keeping very well during this current insane situation. I never expected wedding postponement to be a blog post topic. But having spent the past few weeks speaking to my couples (who have been incredible by the way!) I wanted to put the chat we’ve been having into some easy to follow steps for those of you about to go through this.

Stop. Pause. Look at your partner and take some deep breaths together. This is an insane time for the world. Thank goodness you’ve got your favourite person beside you to face the battle. Whatever happens, you will get married. That person will become your husband or your wife. It isn’t when you’d initially planned, but it will happen. You are not cancelling your marriage, you’re delaying it to keep everyone safe and well.

Decide on whether it is the time of year, or the day of the week, that is most important to you.

For example, a Saturday in July will be challenging for venues and suppliers to accommodate in 2021. Yet, a Sunday to Thursday in July and you’ll be surprised at how many of us still have lots of space.

Or if it is the Saturday that is crucial, consider October to March, and again you’ll find lots of weekends still have availability over that window.

The first people you need to speak to are at your wedding venue. When you reach out to them be sure that you ask for at least three new date options, the more the better. I’d lean towards five or six.

One excellent planning idea I’ve seen is using a Doodle poll, www.doodle.com

It lets you list all the new dates that the venue have offered you, then ping the link to all of your suppliers in one go to fill out with their availability. Then one glance will tell you the date that the majority can do.

There have been updates circulating that some insurers are now starting to pay out to their couples. Although it may feel like you have everything postponed with suppliers, if there is any help from your insurers that could potentially help your suppliers out in a big way.

Lots of us- myself included- have been led by our hearts, rather than business minds over the postponements and waivered normal postponement fees. This is a huge cost to us in loss of business from the dates now filled with postponements, which would have been new bookings. So far it feels like we’ve lost around four months income! We appreciate our financial woes are felt by the whole country- so this isn’t a sob story, just that if you have paid for wedding insurance, please do check if it may help your wedding team of suppliers.

Tell the news to your friends and family- they are bound to be feel unsure at the moment if there is a new date they should put in their diary and if they need to cancel travel plans. They’re unlikely to want to ask you, it can be an upsetting subject to bring up.

To make things simpler a pretty graphic on social media is a good idea, Jacquie at White Olive Design has prepared the beautiful ones above for you to use for this very purpose. To save your favourite, simply head over to her highlights in Instagram and look for the ‘change the date’ icon >  www.instagram.com/whiteolivedesignstudio

Also, if you have had your invites printed already it may be that your supplier will update the design with your new date to share an electronic version- I know this is something both Jacquie and Louise at www.loupaper.co.uk are kindly offering their couples.

Lastly, surround yourself with people in the same situation as you. As much as your friends love you and care about your wedding day, they too are dealing with the crazy Coronavirus world we are in right now. So may not have as much head space to support and relate to you as normal. My Facebook group is a really friendly place for brides-to-be, www.facebook.com/groups/theweddingsanctuary

Please do take care of yourself. This is an unprecedented time and we’re all working our way it the best we can. Please do reach out if I can help you in any way, hello@hannahmcclunephotography.com