'I DO' during COVID-19
Hey there all you cool cats and kittens,
Let’s cut to the chase, we are living in some WILD times and we are all being effected different ways! For me, well US its been our wedding. I was working on editing the rescheduled tab on our wedding website and thought well gosh there are SO many couples going through rescheduling their wedding right now, it might be helpful if I share our experience in a step by step process of how it all went DOWN. I will say when this all started I thought the effects of this pandemic would only effect weddings in April and maybe May but sadly it seems it has hit many more brides than that!
Photo Credit: Nicole Barkis (Barkis Co)
THE DECISION: Man oh man, Covid-19, amiright!?! So my mother was the first to being worrying about the wedding, we were set to get married at the beginning of April (April 4th to be exact) but she began mentioning her concerns on Covid-19 around mid January… why are mothers always right?
Things really didn't get serious for us until 3 to 4 weeks out from the wedding when the government discovered COVID-19 had made its way to Georgia. The virus seemed to be more serious than we expected and we began to worry about multiple things.
First, the concern of individuals health that were in the high risk category
Second, asking our guests to make the hard decision on if they were comfortable traveling and if they did.. what would happen if all the sudden large events were banned by the goverment a few days out from the wedding?
Third, as other countries have put restrictions in place what would the restrictions be in Georgia? Would we be faced with commitments to perishable goods like a cake, food and flowers to then have the goverment cancel the event. These specific orders were required to be finalized 2 to 3 weeks out from the wedding
I will be honest, all these factors began to weigh on me. There were just SO MANY unknowns and being a girl.. yes, tears were starting to get involved. I really just never thought the dream day we poured so much into and planned for over a year and a half would have to get rescheduled!
But in the end, we decided to reschedule on March 19th which was 15 days out from the wedding and it really was the BEST decision. We chose a new date for July. I instantly felt better and more level headed. Family, friends and vendors were so supportive! I know a lot of them were also very thankful we made the call we did.
THE ACTUAL DAY: Our wedding day did come and the days leading up to it were heavier than I expected. Ideas played in my head as to “what we would of been doing this day” Tom was really supportive and helped me in realizing this day was our wedding date for a long time but now we have a NEW date to look forward to! When we got up we made a really fancy breakfast to celebrate the day we had held special and went to visit both our parents and spent the night at his parents house. It was wonderful to see them & it took our minds off everything! (In the end our wedding weekend was the first weekend Georgia banned gatherings of 10 or more people, so very thankful we made the choice we did!)
RESCHEDULING: And so the work begins, as if weddings weren’t enough work already... ladies? For us, we were one of the first weddings to get rescheduled so we were lucky our venue still had a few summer Fridays & Sundays available (unfortunately no Saturdays but that wasn’t a surprise) We moved forward in selecting a date 3 months out that all of our vendors were available for.
Vendors: We were really blessed to have the most amazing vendors! They were so supportive, responsive and quickly jumped to reschedule.
Guests: We let our guests know of the reschedule as soon as we had the contract signed for the date. We did this via Instagram, personal out reach and mailing a new information insert that my little sister made and mailed out. Since then we have asked guests to re-rsvp in late June as we know the new date may not work for everyone and some individual may still feel hesitant in coming to an event come July. We have also changed to a seated dinner instead of a buffet so we will need to get an individual order from everyone. (More to come on that)
Deposits & Costs: For any brides looking to just cancel and curious at what that may look like, it is unlikely to get any deposits back, unless the vendor cancels or you added a force magistrate into your contracts (we personally didn’t, I mean who thought something like this would ever happen?!) The event industry has been hit really hard during this time and a lot of their event / income has been totally wiped so they are just trying to stay afloat.
Turns out a lot of brides were requesting to reschedule so we did have two of our vendors request we provide the entire balance for the wedding to select another date, that was the only thing that seemed a little off during our other wise seamless reschedule.
MOVING FORWARD: So whats next you may be wondering?
The July Wedding: You may be wondering what will a July wedding look like.. and I can say I don’t fully know! Things seem to change DAILY but I do know we are 100% committed to the date and we hope all of our guests can be there!
Guests: Venues are being allowed 10 guests per something square feet, I don’t know this off the top of my head but I do know our venue is VERY large. We will be seating a reduced guest headcount at each table. Originally the tables could hold up to 10 but now we likely just be sitting 6 at each estate / round table.
Food: We will not be having any open food sources and now be providing guests with a seated dinner.
Activities: We will have various actitives for guest should some wanna spread out: smores, lawn games, a few cocktail area’s etc.
Ceremony: This is not Covid-19 related but more so July is SO HOT related, were going to move the ceremony inside with a ceiling floral installation that leads to the stone fire place with some additional drapery and with florals climbing the sides! (Super excited about that one!!)
AND that is where we are at currently! It has been quite the wild ride but I have had the most supportive finance, family, vendors and friends! Tom has been so helpful and working through rescheduling has been something for us to do. We have been social distancing, cooking every night doing puzzles, watching This is Us (our new favorite show) & have really enjoyed all the quality time we have been able to have together.
If you are a bride working to reschedule during Covid-19 I hope you have found this blog helpful. I am more than happy to chat through any additional questions you may have about our experience! I will make sure to write an updated blog after the wedding and will also include one in the coming weeks how we navigated the cancelation of the honeymoon & what we are doing instead!
Cheers,
The Future Mrs. Emery