How To Plan a Wedding in a Pandemic

Let’s talk about frustrations, risks, where we’re at as an industry…

and how not to go bonkers during your planning or as you await your wedding date.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF COVID (Cholera is easier to manage tbh)

Getting married in the next two years? We’re now 15 months into pandemic life in Victoria. Let’s talk about frustrations, risks, where we’re at as an industry and how not to go bonkers during your planning or as you await your wedding date.

 We thought 2021 would be a better year…

 Well, haha us too! Thus far in Victoria we’ve had two lockdowns and seemingly endless breaches of both quarantine and common sense that have put us within the grips of restrictions. Again.

To say everyone’s over it is a vast understatement.

Dollar dollar bucks

In 2020 vendors were supported by Jobkeeper, which at least lessened some financial fallout. 2020 also saw vendors wear the entirety of the responsibility in terms of cancelled and postponed weddings. We stumbled about in the storm, juggling dates, patiently negotiating and trying to support our couples and each other as our work collapsed.

Just in case…

At this point, many couples have postponed three or even four times. And it’s not over yet. Each lockdown there’s the inevitable and devastating effect on couples being married that week. However, the restrictions leach into weeks after, affecting those weddings too. In June alone, I have already postponed 11 weddings.

We’re now seeing a new phenomenon - couples wanting to postpone their weddings ‘just in case’. Just in case of a lockdown or restrictions that are deal breakers for them. What are those deal breakers? Is it having international guests who must be present? Is it a dance floor? Is it 100+ guests? It’s a mix of things and it’s understandable- people want their wedding day to be ‘perfect’.

Surely this will be over soon?!

Allow me to put my pragmatic nurse’s hat on for a moment. 

Epidemiological experts and infectious disease medical science predict intermittent lockdowns well into 2022, and possibly beyond. Even with an 80% national vaccination rate, emerging strains of the virus may challenge the ‘herd immunity’. YAY FOR US. 

So, is it that we have to learn to accept what we can’t control and just hope for the best? 

 The way I see it there’s two choices here:  

1.    Let it go, roll with it and accept that what will be will be or

2.    Cancel your wedding altogether and rebook everything for 2023

Between lockdowns in Victoria weddings were ‘normal’. I had many couples finally get their big day throughout April and May on a postponed date. I also had couples downgrade to smaller weddings and be thrilled with how they turned out.

You have to ask yourself what is really important to you personally.  

But wahh lockdowns.. 

To mitigate lockdown risk you can -

1.     Choose a warmer date to marry

2.     Choose a registered venue which have greater allowances for guests due their Covid safe plans and vigilant guest registration.  

That’s pretty much it. It’s out of our control and trying to control things we cannot is freaking stressful. Save your cortisol! 

I’m hopeful that dedicated quarantine facilities with consideration of airborne transmission risk and increased vaccination uptake will also do its part so lockdowns are less frequent. But for some years yet, we’re going to have to accept that the landscape has changed, life- and weddings may look a bit different and that outbreaks and lockdowns are going to occur whether we like it or not. 

Snap lockdowns suuuuck. (heartily agree with this!) 

As an industry we will always deal compassionately with couples affected by a government imposed lockdown. Always. 

But I appeal to those hanging in for the long race to be open and flexible.  

My wedding can actually occur but not how I want it 

If you are requesting vendors to keep moving your date 6-12 months ahead chasing the dream this may come at a cost. If you’ve had two dates already allocated and want to postpone again ‘just in case’- there may be costs associated with that. Which is entirely reasonable. Essentially you’ve been allocated three dates but vendors have been paid for one.  

Planning and solutions 

So, there’s two clear cases here- your wedding cannot happen due to government lockdown OR it can - but not as you dreamt it to be. They’re two very different things. There’s a few solutions I know are being offered for ‘just in case’ postponements: 

1. Postponement only to weekdays for free.

2. Postponement to a Friday or Saturday in the future with a fee.

3. Booking be cancelled and rebooked altogether.  

*If you booked in 2019 and want to move to 2023, it’s not reasonable to expect a vendor to hold your date that far in advance for the same fee. I can’t see a house I like today and then turn up again in four years when I’m ready to buy asking for the same price. (unfortunately!) 

Up to our necks in it 

Friday or Saturday availabilities are limited due to the long-range nature of booking in our industry and the number of postponements that are already backlogged. Popular vendors will have little to offer in terms of peak Fridays and Saturdays and I suggest that it’s not really fair to ask for them either.  

Let’s say you’re booked for a peak date in November this year and choose to postpone because you’re worried you may not be able to have 200 guests. If your vendors offer a free transfer but only to a weekday, that’s not miserly or mean- it’s entirely fair.  

‘That’s a bit rough’ 

Well, no not really. Because your November 2021 date is unlikely to be rebooked now so vendors lose work (ergo income). If you move into a November 2022 date, you are taking a date for a new booking. Every time this happens your vendors incomes are halved.

This is only going to be sustainable for a short time before they cease to have a functioning business and as a result you lose your vendor- and your monies paid. 

Got any good news? 

YEP! I believe we will return to ‘normal’ weddings and that many weddings in 2021/2022 will skip through unscathed. But intermittently some will be unlucky. We will absolutely do all we can to work with those couples and get them into a new date. And their wedding will happen. Eventually. 

Da Future 

I reckon we’ll start seeing greater screening by vendors to mitigate their own risk taking on clients in the near future. Do you have a heap of international guests you have to have present? Well, I’m almost certain that that international travel is still fairly unlikely in Feb 2022 so to save myself from negotiating another postponement I decline taking that wedding on. 

Take the power back 

I’ve thought on this a lot lately. I reckon your planning can be guided by two simple questions. 

1.   Are you flexible with guest lists/ the attendance of overseas guests?

2.   Can you adjust to the idea that your wedding probably will go ahead on your planned date - but in some cases it may not

If you are flexible and can adjust, throw all your f#cks in the air and trust that no matter what, your vendors will get you there and it will be brilliant! Promise!

Now, pass the wine. Let’s make a plan! xx