Prepping for a worldwide pandemic is stressful enough when you aren’t planning a wedding. What happens if Coronavirus threatening your wedding day?

Talk to your planner
If you haven’t hired one already, now is a great time to reach out to a wedding planner. They can help you stay in contact with your vendors, and help you trouble shoot the hiccups that happen. It’ll be so great to have an extra person in your corner to help you sort through the chaos that COVID-19 has thrown at people planning their weddings!

Consider reducing your guest list before rescheduling
It may feel like your hand is being forced, but there are ways to be creative and make magic happen. Maybe you keep your wedding date, reduce your guest list to the CDC’s recommended number, and make it more of an intimate wedding. As a photographer, a small, intimate wedding is truthfully one of my favorite things to shoot. It’s less stress on my couple and we have time to make truly beautiful images. 

Switch to full elopement 
In this scenario, you could treat your wedding as a full blown styled shoot. Talk about a dream! Still go through with hair, makeup, and getting a bouquet, the tux, and your wedding dress. But let it just be the two of you and maybe your parents or immediate family. We can spend time styling a full, beautiful table for you to enjoy a dinner together, get gorgeous images of the two of you because we have all the time in the world. That is what this couple did and it was a dream! 

If you are considering reducing your guest list or moving forward with an elopement style wedding, my pro tip would be that you could also plan to throw a reception at a later time for your full guest list! Many times, my couples that do destination elopements do something like this. It’s still incredibly special, and keeps your guest list from being exposed to the threat of Coronavirus while celebrating you!

Another thing to consider for this option is hiring a really great videographer who can capture the day! You can play the video at the postponed reception so the guests feel like they got to be a part of it! 

If you are looking to reschedule, here are some tips!

Consider the goods purchased in advance
Certain vendors need to know in advance if things are going to cancel. I think I speak for most of the event industry when I say we are trying to be very accommodating. We know that wedding planning with a Coronavirus quarantine isn’t ideal. We want to be able to be flexible and sensitive to the huge cost this is incurring for our couples. People like florists, and caterers need to place their flower and food orders well in advance to the wedding. Reach out to them to see when they plan to order your goods and when the latest you could let them know about your decision. This might prevent a big hit to your pocketbook!

Rescheduling for Non-Saturday’s
Part of the reason’s weddings are so expensive is because there are a very limited amount of Saturday’s in desirable months. Many people think weddings prices are inflated because of the nature of it being a wedding, but that isn’t true. It’s because there are only so many Saturday’s in the April – November busy season. If you are feeling the pennies being pinched for your wedding because of rescheduling your wedding due to Coronavirus, it’s probably worth it to consider a non-Saturday date. I wrote a whole blog about it here! Basically, you can save thousands and thousands of dollars by which day of the week you select and which month. Did you know that weddings used to all be on Wednesdays? Let’s make 2020 the year we bring that back!

Look at insurance policies and guarantees
Now is the time to dig up those insurance policies. Did you purchase wedding insurance? Read through those policies to see what can be covered if a coronavirus is threatening your wedding day. I have heard, although I cannot confirm, that some other policies, such as life insurance, may be able to help as well. I do know that MANY credit cards have insurance built into them for thing purchased on your cards. It will take due diligence, but if you are feeling patient, it may be worth a call to your credit card companies as well!

Last but not least: Do not cancel!
If you cancel all together without rescheduling, you are likely to lose many of your retainers that have been paid. Collaborate to find dates where your most costly vendors are able to reschedule in hopes that they’ll move your previous payments to be a credit on the new date of the wedding. I know I have sent my fall availability to several couples looking to reschedule.

I hope this is helpful to avoid coronavirus threatening your wedding day!