5 Steps to Take If You Have to Postpone Your Wedding

You’ve spent months or even years planning the most important day of your life and something completely beyond your control comes along to ruin all your hard work. That’s exactly how many couples around the world who were expecting to be celebrating their wedding day in the next few weeks are currently feeling.

Postponing your wedding isn’t anyone’s first choice, but it’s something many people are currently being forced to do during these incredibly uncertain times. If you’ve had to delay saying “I do”, here’s an overview of the steps you need to take to ensure all the effort you put into planning your wedding doesn’t go to waste.

1.  Contact your venue, vendors and suppliers

The first thing you need to do is contact your wedding venue, vendors and suppliers to let them know what’s going on. If you’re using a wedding planner, they’ll be able to help you organise all the phone calls and emails. Otherwise, it’s a challenge you’ll have to tackle yourself.

Keep in mind that everyone you call is running a business and are likely to be impacted by your postponement. Try to be understanding and work together to find a solution which is beneficial for everyone.

2.  Let your guests know

Tell all your guests as soon as possible about the changes to your wedding. It’s a good idea to call close family members and friends to explain the situation to them. You can just send a mass email or text message to inform everyone else.

If you’ve planned a destination wedding, anticipate your guests to be concerned about the money they’ve spent on flights and accommodation. If possible, offer to help them get their money back or at least put their bookings on hold until they’re able to use them.

3.  Check your wedding insurance policy

If you took out a wedding insurance policy, now’s the time to dig out the paperwork. Some specific clauses you might want to look for are:

• How much of the full wedding cost does your policy cover?
• Does your cover include postponement/cancellation fees?
• Which circumstances are covered in the event that you need to postpone/cancel your wedding — personal circumstances, natural disasters, global health crises?
• Will your insurance cover you if you need to cancel your honeymoon?

5. Stay positive

It’s perfectly normal to feel disappointed after postponing your wedding. But for you and your partner’s sake, it’s important you try your best to stay positive. See the delay as an opportunity to plan the parts of your big day you didn’t previously have time for and include some fun additions you forgot about last time.

This too shall pass

Although it might feel like it right now, postponing your wedding isn’t the end of the world. As the Persian proverb goes, “This too shall pass”. You will come through this turbulent time and you will get to marry the love of your life. Stay positive, look toward the future and know that the best is yet to come