Tag: wedding planning

The Ultimate Survival Guide to Postponing Your Wedding

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Having to postpone your wedding is awful! You have been planning for months, maybe years, and right now it might seem like everything is ruined—but it doesn’t have to be! This comprehensive list will provide you the steps necessary to efficiently postpone your wedding with GRACE & STYLE! 
Photo by Caili Helsper Photography

As a soon-to-be-married couple, the decision to postpone your wedding can be overwhelming, particularly in a time of crisis, such as COVID-19. REMEMBER: At the end of the day, all of this extra hard work will be totally worth it when you finally get to come together with your loved ones, marry your partner and celebrate your LOVE!


TALK WITH YOUR WEDDING PLANNER

Now is the time to lean on your resources. This is why you hired a wedding planner! Contact your wedding planner to begin the postponement process. There are a lot of moving parts when planning a wedding, let alone postponing one! You have to change the date, contact family members and guests, draw up new contracts with vendors—the list goes on. Don’t drown in a sea of information, let your wedding planner be your life raft! 

READ YOUR CONTRACTS

Before contacting any vendors, re-read all your contracts! Check the fine print for their cancellation and/or rebooking policies, as well as the “act of God” or force majeure clauses. This information will determine how you will proceed with your vendors. 

If you invested in wedding insurance, that’s AMAZING! Contact your insurance company and check what your policy will cover. If you don’t have insurance, no big deal—but now that you see the value, be sure to have a policy set up for your postponement date!

SET EXPECTATIONS

It is important to understand that changing the date of your wedding is also going to increase the potential for extra costs. Most vendors are going to try their hardest to meet your new date at the same cost, but it is not always possible. They will have to exert extra time and resources, so the payments may not be able to remain the same. 

Some vendors or services may not be available if you are moving your date to another year. Try to be flexible and work with your vendors. You can still have your BIG DAY with the perfect florist or the photographer you always wanted if you are willing to COMPROMISE. 

SELECT A NEW DATE

Selecting a new date can be tricky, especially in a time of crisis when we don’t really know what is going to happen yet. At this point, you have to consider your PRIORITIES. Every postponement decision is going to be based around what is absolutely necessary for you to have on your wedding day. Start with what is MOST important to you (i.e. family, venue) and move down the list from there. 

Ask yourself: 
What are the best possible new dates for us?
Will our VIP guests be available to attend?
What dates can our venue accommodate?
Are our priority vendors available?
Will the remaining vendors be available? 

Be prepared to be FLEXIBLE. Remember, you are rescheduling your wedding into a future season that is already partially planned, so prime days at popular venues may not always be available.  

ASSEMBLE YOUR NEW WEDDING TEAM 

Now that you have chosen a new date and contacted your priority vendors, take a moment to make sure everyone understands the changes that are being made. Don’t worry: Your wedding planner will gather the addendums to the former contracts to document these changes. 

Use all the hard work you and your wedding planner have already done as an outline. Communicate with your vendors and confirm that they will stick as best they can to the original plans. Moving forward with the postponement is so much easier once everyone has a shared understanding of the situation. The goal is to plan you a wedding as similar as possible to the one you were planning all along: YOU CAN STILL HAVE YOUR DREAM WEDDING—just on a different date! 

ANNOUNCE YOUR NEW DATE

Once you have chosen a new wedding date, send out a formal announcement to inform your guests. What you do next depends on where you are in the wedding planning process: 

If you haven’t sent out invitations yet, you may want to consider sending a digital ‘Change-the-Date’ rather than the traditional paper card due to sanitation concerns related to COVID-19. Then you can follow up with the traditional timeline sending the paper invitations 6 to 10 weeks prior to the event. 

If your invitations have already been mailed and you don’t want to spend a fortune re-sending cards, consider digitally sending revised invitations matching the original design. Or if you feel your wedding has moved a far enough date, scrap the original and choose a whole new invitation entirely. This is still your day, and after all the strife you have been through for this wedding you deserve a BEAUTIFUL invitation to match the occasion!    

TAKE A MOMENT 

Postponing and re-planning a wedding can be one of the most stressful experiences of your life—this is a big deal, it is your WEDDING DAY after all. You wanted everything to go perfectly, but a wrench got thrown in the plans. If you are feeling distressed or overwhelmed, take a moment to RELAX and take a few deep breaths—whatever is currently stressing you out will still be there in a few minutes, it can WAIT. 

Remember to take time for yourself. You will be better off if you give your mind a moment to rest. Don’t waste your time getting caught up in the disappointment of having to postpone. Channel your energy into the areas where you will need it most, like planning your awesome NEW wedding! At the end of the day, all this hard work will be totally worth it when you and your loved ones celebrate safely on your BIG DAY! 

Getting Married During COVID-19? DON’T CANCEL— POSTPONE!

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COVID-19 got you down? Planning a wedding is difficult enough as is, now you’ve got to deal with this? Seriously?! 

Right now it is easy to feel overwhelmed. No one anticipated the sheer magnitude of COVID-19; the extent of the pandemic is only just starting to set in. Until further notice, we have been told to practice social distancing and restrict gatherings. If your wedding is off the table due to this crisis, REMEMBER: don’t cancel your wedding— POSTPONE!


During this state of unrest, it is understandable to be apprehensive. Times are tough for everyone and right now we don’t really know how things are going to pan out. However, in the long run, moving plans to a later date is always going to be easier (and less costly!) then starting from scratch—not only for you, but for everyone else involved in making your wedding SPECTACULAR! 

During this turbulent social and economic time, it is important to stay positive and look toward the future where one day we will come together again and CELEBRATE! This is still going to be your wedding after all, and your event is IMPORTANT & SPECIAL to everyone involved. From your wedding coordinator to your vendors, we in the event industry are working tirelessly, so everything is PERFECT for your BIG DAY!


 The hardest part of rescheduling events during a crisis like COVID-19 is the uncertainty. Here are a couple helpful statistics to consider when postponing your wedding: 

  1. 26% of couples are postponing to a later date in 2020. It is understandable, after all the planning and anticipation, many couples have decided to move their wedding date within the same year. Events in this climate are going to look very different than they ever have before, but ultimately the people are going to get to come together and demonstrate their love, even if it is not exactly how they had originally planned. 
  2. 26.5% are moving to 2021. It is a hard pill to swallow, but this pandemic is going to have a ripple effect that will likely alter the state of events for the unforeseeable future. If you are still hoping for a huge blow-out with a lot of guests, it may be safest to re-schedule to the new year.
  3. Only 5.5% of couples are cancelling altogether. REMEMBER: while some couple have chosen to cancel, its is always easier and  more cost efficient to POSTPONE!
  4. A majority of couples (42%) are holding their current date. Right now we don’t really know what future gatherings are going to look like. It may be naive, but if we recover from this crisis in the next few months then retaining the same date couples can just continue as planned. In all reality, even with increased concern over COVID-19, the show will go on—just maybe not as according to the original plan. As long as these couples are willing to remain flexible, retaining an original wedding date is a perfectly good option!
Rescheduling a wedding is no easy task, let alone during a full-blown pandemic. Try to STAY POSITIVE! You had a great wedding planned—and you can STILL see those plans come to fruition! At the end of the day, all the hard work you have put in to overcome these challenges will make this VICTORY even sweeter when you and your loved ones are able to safely CELEBRATE YOUR LOVE together!!

Attending Weddings Without Breaking the Bank

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Wedding season is upon us, which means you most likely have at least one wedding to attend in the near future. Whether you need to buy a new dress or pay for a hotel stay, anyone who has attended a wedding knows it’s not just the happy couple that needs to shell out some money to celebrate the big day. 


Photo by Kassia Phoy Photography

Being a wedding guest can get expensive! Laura Gariepy over at Charlie, a financial app that helps you budget, gives some great tips on how to save some cash. It’s definitely worth checking out if you have some upcoming weddings on your calendar, and can be found here.

Marriage Prep Class

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It was a strong desire of mine to take some sort of counseling or marriage class during our engagement as my fiance and I come from very different backgrounds. We currently attend Park Community Church, which offers a Marriage Prep Class.

We are currently in session and half way through the class. It has been SO beneficial and allowed us to have discussions that may have never happened if the class didn’t spark the conversation for us.

The topics of each week are below:

1. Biblical basis to Marriage
2. Communication
3. Conflict Resolution
4. Sex
5. Roles and Responsibilities
6. Family of Origin and Parenting
7. Finances
8. Building Each other Up

I realize that our class is religious based and that is not for everyone, but I would still highly recommend taking some sort of class or counseling. It has opened the door for conversation I never realized was needed before marriage.

Also, I look at it as another unique opportunity to experience during engagement! 🙂

Here is a recent picture of us…just for the fun of it 🙂

Trish Suhr’s Wedding

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I’m a huge fan of Clean House. I love watching Niecy Nash and her team clean and purge messy homes. So when I saw that there was a special on the Style network about Trish Suhr’s destination wedding, I clicked record.

Trish had a destination wedding in Mexico. Part of the episode is her talking about how she finds wedding planners to be crazy. But if you watch the interviews, I think part of it is the planners that she chose to meet.



Evernote is cool!

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It’s like a big online scrapbook without the messy cutting & pasting!

Evernote allows you to clip things from different sites and compile them all into one easily viewable page – perfect for sharing with vendors, your wedding party, or taking with you on shopping trips. Just pull it up on your phone and you’re good to go! Now all your ideas and inspiration can be at hand at all times.



Check out a great example of shared notebook from Kasey Fleisher Hickey here to get inspiration. Happy clipping!

Top Wedding Trends for 2010

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One Wed just posted the Top 10 wedding trends for 2010. Here is my take — and unsolicited opinions — on the trends


10. Screw the Trends – Be Yourself Personalization has been a priority for Chicago brides for the past 3 years. While I don’t consider this new, I do encourage all of my couples to personalize their wedding. And no, that doesn’t mean putting a monogram on everything.

9. Bright Color, Black Backdrop I am so happy that white is becoming less common at weddings. I LOVE COLOR. I totally agree!

8. Earth-friendly “I Do’s” I wish that I had more couples embrace being green when it comes to wedding. It just isn’t happening yet.

7. GROOMed for Success I will happily report that about 75% of the grooms are involved at Honey Bee Weddings. It’s great and I’m all for it. Well, unless the couple wants me to settle a dispute. That is always a little uncomfortable.

6. Everything Old Is New Again Did you check out the real wedding from Martha and Julio? My dear readers adored it! I love everything retro and hope that brides keep embracing the past for new ideas.

5. Backyard Chic A barn was a top choice for Brides in 2009. It’s not as popular here in Chicago…but perhaps it will become more popular. There are some great local options.

4. Mix and Mingle I adore a cocktail hour reception. And if you are on a budget, a great way to cut costs is by having a cocktail reception. Or a brunch reception. I MUCH rather see a unique, chic wedding than another country club wedding where everything has to be done a certain way. Really. Your guests don’t need to have a soup, salad, entree, and dessert to be happy.

3. Return to Romance I love the idea… but haven’t seen it yet. I wonder is my 2010 brides will be rocking lace. I can’t wait!

2. Food You Can Eat Chicago Brides, you are so behind the times that very few of you embraced the foodie trend of the past few years. That said, you can serve something besides chicken. If you are on a budget, why not serve pasta? I rather have pasta than chicken any day of the week. I have an upcoming bride that is serving all of her favorite foods. There isn’t a vege to be seen. She’s a girl after my own heart!

1. iDo Skip it. An iPod doesn’t work but at small weddings. Nothing can compare to a professional wedding photographer. And getting your friends involved in your wedding planning? You’re asking for trouble!

Dessert before the entree?

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Well, not exactly…

Intermezzo can be defined as a course between other courses to cleanse the palette. Popular in Italy, Intermezzo usually falls before the main course. It is often a sorbet. Often times, this is offered in a wedding package. It’s nice addition for a formal wedding.

Congratulations… I mean, Best Wishes!

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Over the holiday’s, I am sure that some of you were engaged or you knew of someone that became engaged.

Best Wishes!
Before you enter the overwhelming world of dance lessons, DIY projects, and findining the perfect linens, sit back and relax.  Enjoy your engagement for a few days before entering the world of wedding planning.  I can assure you that from now until you walk down the aisle, you are going to have at least one meltdown.  Don’t fret.  It happens.
Until then, just enjoy the wonderful time. 
When you are ready to start planning, check back here for more details on Wedding Planning 101.  And incase you are a blog newbie, I have tagged all posts with the label Wedding Planning 101 so that you can sit and read these posts together and at your leisure.
 
Our engagement on the Canary Islands