Wedding Planning Tips During COVID-19
This has been the most uncertain time of our modern lives, and planning a wedding has to be the most stressful thing to do. I have many brides who are unsure if they should postpone or how to go about postponing if they decide to do so because they planned their wedding without this being a concern a year ago. We are unsure if this will go away or how people will approach planning weddings, but I can not be worried because I have 6 wedding planning tips during COVID-19.
1. Have a Back-Up Plan
If there is one thing that COVID-19 has taught me, it is to have a back-up plan for my back-up plan. We never know what the next day will bring us or what decisions will be made out of our control. But what we can do to combat that is to come up with a back-up plan for your wedding day. I would recommend having a secondary location on deck, like an outdoor area or someone’s backyard, as it gets closer to your original wedding date. Wedding Planning Tips
2. Book your vendors as soon as possible
After you make the back-up plan, find your most important vendors first. Your venue, photographer, and DJ are three vendors you should knock off the list right away. If you are booking your wedding a year or two in advance, getting on top of those immediately puts you ahead of the game. I know that we are booking almost 2 years out for some couples because of the uncertainty of the times we live in. This may all change back to what it used to be, OR it will become the new normal of how couples book their vendors for their wedding.
3. Get Wedding Cancelation Insurance
Unfortunately, wedding cancelations happen more often than you think, but most vendors won’t give back your deposit or payments you made on the balance if you decide to cancel your wedding. One thing I would recommend doing is looking into getting wedding cancelation insurance. This will most likely only be for your venue, but having the insurance if you need to cancel and it eases your mind a bit. Wedding Planning Tips
4. Keep your guest list small
Wedding guest lists are notorious for being fairly large, upwards of 200-250 people for some couples. Most areas have capacity limits on indoor venues, and some people are still not comfortable being in a space with a lot of people. Consider a smaller guest list. Try keeping it to 100 – 125 people as a max guest list. This way, you don’t have to un-invite any guests and go through that awkward moment of saying, “Hey, sorry, you can’t come anymore because of COVID,” and then see them a few days later. Also, this keeps your overall budget cost down as well. Wedding Planning Tips
5. How to anticipate and prepare for guest cancelation
Invite more than you expect to come and even more than you expect to say that they will come and then cancel last minute because they don’t want to risk getting sick. This is something we cannot avoid, but we can plan for. The best course of action is to invite people you know for a fact will be present at your wedding. Then, once that list is finished, add people who are 50/50 on coming or not. This way, you can still have your desired guest list number, and you won’t be paying for more guests ahead of time for them to not sure.
6. Order your gown ahead of time
Another thing I learned during this pandemic is to purchase things way in advance. Whether you want to believe it or not, people will use the pandemic as an excuse for certain things that they shouldn’t use the pandemic as an excuse for. Ordering your gown way ahead of time is the one item I would knock off your “wedding to-do list” as soon as you can. People are being more cautious with letting people into their shop all at once. The shops will have a limited number of appoints per day and a limited number of guests you can bring with you to find your gown. Wedding Planning Tips
Give ample time for the shop to do the alterations on the dress, and in the case, it needs to be made, it allows for that as well. Wedding Planning Tips
Things to Consider
This list is endless when it comes to how weddings should be planned post-COVID-19, but there are a few options that I feel are important to shed light on.
7. Elope
There is always the option of eloping. Elopements or small intimate weddings are becoming more and more popular now. If you don’t want to stress about planning this big wedding for it to get canceled a month or 2 before the wedding, then I’d elope, and then when you are certain things are going back to some normalcy, then plan a party for friends and family who weren’t at the elopement. Wedding Planning Tips
8. Add a Live Stream
Most videography companies are adding a live stream option to their wedding packages. For guests who aren’t comfortable being present at the wedding but want to watch your ceremony can do so through the live stream. Ask your video team if they have any live stream options and consider adding that into your photo/video package. Wedding Planning Tips
9. Finding a venue that has an outdoor
Find a venue that you have the capability to more your reception outdoors. This will be so much less stressful than finding a completely different venue that can accommodate the outdoor set-up and then have to tell all your guests of the venue change.
The way people plan weddings has forever changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Plan it quick and plan it smart. Some aspects you can hold off on and some you cannot not. Just do your homework, be prepared but also remember to have fun planning it. This is an amazing journey you are embarking on, and I don’t want you to forget any of it. If you have any questions, you can click here and head over to our contact page and reach out! I’d be happy to help!