ISO OVERWHELMED?

/

ISO OVERWHELMED - HOW TO NAVIGATE YOUR WEDDING AND COVID 19

 

Uncertain and unprecedented times right now for the world.  If you had a wedding planned for March - September, we firstly want to say, we are sorry this happened to you. We can’t imagine the heartbreak you went through in having to postpone, or if you were able to go ahead, not having your loved ones able to attend your day as planned.

Things are going to be ok, and when you have that celebration it’s going to be huge.

Navigating this has been a learning curve for all of us, couples and vendors alike. Who would have thought we would be here right now. It is all very surreal.

So, you are planning to get married, you may have rescheduled your date, or have a date scheduled or late this year. We think its good to chat about your options, and importantly how you navigate changing things if you need to with a lot of moving parts already secured for your day.

If you have had to postpone or make changes we suggest a few ideas:

  • Take your wedding venues lead. Your wedding venue is the top of the planning pyramid, they are the first thing you booked when you started your planning journey, so they should have the same consideration applied to them in regard to whether you move your date again or not. Karen Bentley, Sales and Marketing manager of Riverstone Estate says “right now we are working in two - three month blocks of time. If you are getting married in October or November you don’t need to be making any changes until you see whats happening in mid July, unless you have family overseas of course”.
    Good venues are taking a strong lead in the management of postponing couples days to help ensure its the most seamless transition as possible. Another important point to mention, if you want to change your date from winter this year, you most likely won’t be able to get into Summer or Autumn next year, either because those dates will already be taken, but also if they are free there will more than likely be in increased price associated with that time of the year, which is peak for wedding season. So if you can change to then, expect it will cost you more.

  • It may be worth considering changing to a mid week wedding. This can ensure you can get a date sooner, and you won’t likely attract the increase in price this way. Also, your venue will have more availability, and you will most likely be able to keep your entire vendor team. Winning all round there.

  • If you can, postpone, don’t cancel. We know we will be having weddings soon, keep your plans, even if they are on another date it’s going to be one heck of a party when it happens

  • Remember you are marrying your bestie, and this trumps Covid, date changes, bad weather, or the odd person not being able to come to your wedding, this is the start to your beautiful marriage. 

  • With technology now you can livestream your wedding to those that can’t make it, virtual weddings are totally a thing now

  • Stay calm and lean on your vendors to help you through the transition they are great and can help, be understanding vendors are dealing with plenty of upheaval themselves so it may take a little longer to work through it but they will be there for you. 

  • Be prepared to compromise just in case, somethings may change but refer to number 4 if you’re feeling frustrated. We are all part of a wonderful vendor community and can assist you to find like minded vendors for your day

  • Elope. If getting married now is important to you, there are some wonderful elopement options for you to marry now and party later with a bigger bunch of family and friends. Keep in mind if you do this and want your photographer/videographer and there etc, you will most likely need to pay some vendors twice to cover both events(assuming that the smaller wedding will be a lesser price). Also keep in mind if you plan to elope and have paid deposits to vendors, as a part of their contracts you have co-signed, you may not be able to, by law, get these back. But work with your vendor and chat to them to see if you have other options before you change anything.

Hold off and wait to see what the government are saying about the large gatherings if your day is more than 3 months away.  We suggest referring to health.gov.au for the most up to date info about Covid-19 and government announcements.  Facebook is great but almost as reliable as Googling medical conditions, the opinions vary vastly and are sometimes scarily inaccurate.

The reality is this is such an ever evolving situation. So it’s important to remain as is in regard to your date unless your venue suggests you make changes now. 

If you are feeling really unsettled, and all this is affecting your mental health (and your are both happy to wait), look into the options for changing dates. Your health is the most important thing through all of this, and that you stick together and make decisions as a team.

The easiest way to approach changing your supplier team if you need to postpone is to start with your vendors that will need to personally be there with you on the day. Like videographers, Photographers, Hair and Make up artists, anyone that doesn’t usually take multiple dates on a single day, find out their availability and work your other suppliers around those dates from there.  Things like cakes and flowers etc should be ok to fit you in.

Create a little spreadsheet and make note of who is free and when, and hopefully the stars align for a date for you, start with your venue for date and work down from there.

Try to avoid asking lots of people for their opinion, ask the important ones and leave it at that, and in most cases thats just your fiance, otherwise that can be another level of stress you don’t need.

We hope this has been helpful in assisting you navigate this time. We will continue to support you all through these changes and know that things will be okay soon, and as we said above, when the celebration finally happens, it will be grand.

Sharne x
Team Valley Loves

Imagery by talented VL vendor Kas Richards