Photo credit: Janet D. Photography

Planning our wedding was quite possibly one of the simplest things I have done. Yes, you read that correctly. Simple. We looked at one of everything.

One photographer.

One videographer.

One ceremony location.

One reception venue.

One florist.

One DJ.

And before each of our meetings were over, we were signing contracts with those vendors. My fiancé and I agreed to keep things simple (or as simple as you can for a 250 person wedding) which would cause the least amount of stress as possible. When it came down to the small details though, I started having a hard time. Which invitations were ‘us’? What should we have for our late night snack? How should our centerpieces be arranged? Place cards or seating chart? I was discussing this with family one night and my aunt stopped me and said “Something is bound to go wrong on your wedding day. You have all of the big details figured out. Nobody will realize if something small goes wrong. Actually, nobody will notice if anything goes wrong! Only you.”

And then COVID-19 happened. (My aunt later called and said that this was NOT what she meant by ‘nobody will notice if anything goes wrong’.) With less than 2 weeks before our wedding, we had to pick up the pieces and re-plan our entire wedding. Within 5 hours, everything was re-planned for a new wedding date, and ready to go. Here’s how we did it.

Be Organized

From day one of planning our (initial) wedding, I kept receipts, contracts and wedding related notes in a binder. Having everything in one spot made getting started so easy. I did not create a wedding email address (I look back now and wish I did) but I did have a wedding folder in my emails to keep all correspondence in one place should a document get misplaced.

Stay One Step Ahead

All vendors understand the concern for potential cancellations at this point. I strongly recommend touching base with all of your vendors asking them their policy for this. A tip from our DJ was to look for “Act of God” in all of our contracts, highlight it and reach out to any vendors where “Act of God” was not mentioned in the contract. We noticed one of our vendors did not mention this in the contract we signed however they were just as accommodating as our other vendors. I suggest asking for something in writing after discussing with the vendor.

Stay Positive

On top of being quarantined to your house for the last however many days, you now have to replan the day you have been dreaming of and counting down since your date was decided. None of this is easy but staying as positive as possible truly will help. Remember, this is out of everyone’s control. We are all in this together. While postponing the date will be difficult, remember so many of your family and friends who may not have been able to join due to the pandemic should now be able to with the new date decided.

Find Some Humor

My fiancé and I were able to get our invitations re-printed at a discounted cost after reaching out to the company who printed them for us. We chose completely different invitations and enjoyed looking through the updated designs. After we selected the design, we were about to enter our information when I said “Okay, let’s try this again.” We both looked at each other, laughed and included “Let’s try this again” in small print on the back of our invitations. We have had so many guests comment on the note they stumbled upon and they laughed with us.

& Most Of All…

You are going to marry your best friend. It may not be the day you thought or possibly even where you thought, but none of that matters. “If at the end of the day you’re married to the one you love, then everything went perfectly.” ♥

Nicole is a Customer Experience Representative at Lifetime Creations, an e-commerce personalized gifts company. Nicole is the smile on the other end of the phone or your email when you have questions about our gifts or your order. She has handled rescheduling her wedding like a champ!