This post was not easy to write!  What a strange time we live in, right?!  As a professional wedding vendor and bride-to-be during COVID, I thought I’d share some tips to decide what to do if it looks like your wedding date is going to be affected by the pandemic.

So first things first, you need to decide what your must haves are.  Here are some guiding questions to assist you:

1. Do you mind if people have to wear masks at your wedding?
2. Do you want to be married no matter what on your original wedding date or are you flexible with changing your date and postponing your marriage?
3. What is the smallest amount of guests you are okay with having at your wedding?
4. Does your venue have an outdoor option or an option to space tables out?
5. Is dancing with guests important to you?
6. Do you have members of your family that are high risk for COVID that will not be vaccinated?
7. Will it upset you if people RSVP no because of health concerns with the pandemic?
8. Are any of your vendor and venue fees refundable?

These questions are just talking points with you and your fiance so you can figure out what is most important to you.  I hate that we even have to talk about this but it is very real for many of us going through it right now.  Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start processing if it makes sense for you to postpone all together or go ahead and get married with a small group of guests.

Here are Craig and I’s answers to these questions:

1. We hope people don’t have to wear masks at our wedding but we are okay if they have to!
2. We absolutely want to be married on our original date no matter what!
3. The smallest amount of guests that we want at our wedding would be around 100.  We have invited 192 guests so that would be cutting our guest list in half.  Yikes!
4. Our venue is all outdoors and has plenty of room to space out.
5. YES!! I really hope we can have a dance floor at our wedding.
6. We have a few family members that are high risk but honestly most people will be vaccinated by May, woohoo!
7. No, we are okay if people RSVP no.  We want everyone to feel comfortable if they come to our wedding.
8. No, our vendor and venue fees are not refundable so if we have to postpone, that is what we will do!  The party will happen at some point.

Our number one goal is to be married on May 22nd, 2021.  We don’t want to postpone our marriage any longer so we will get married that day no matter what the circumstances are.  We also have lots of vendors booked that are not refundable so we also will have our reception when the mandate allows us too.  We are hopeful that this will happen in May with the vaccine rollout but if it’s not safe, we will postpone our reception until a later date.  If the mandate is still low- we will get married on May 22nd at my river house with our close family and friends.  We hope that we will be in the mountains at Pharsalia celebrating with all of our guests though!!

Answering these questions helped us make important decisions.  I am so sorry to anyone that is going through wedding planning during this pandemic.  I am always here to talk if you need a listening ear, I feel your pain.  If you are one of my bride and grooms, I am 100% with you with whatever you decide and want to help you along the way!!

We are praying for a quick vaccine rollout and weddings to start up in full force SOON!  Enjoy some photos of Pharsalia when we visited last June!