Covid and April 2021 wedding!

I totally get your worries. We have moved ours from November 2020 to May 2021. I am still worried, especially because international travel is involved. The virus is unpredictable, and we simply can’t know what our world will look like in 10 months. BUT it is 10 months away. By that time, there will be months of work done to find a treatment or vaccine, and for our world to adjust. I am staying hopeful that we don’t have to cancel the DW. I am not going to let it stress me out again for a while. If January comes and this is still a major issue, then I will start to stress, AGAIN lol. I suggest waiting a bit longer before changing your plans if the wedding you have been planning is important to you. If deep down, you actually love the idea of an intimate wedding, then take this opportunity to replan a new, smaller wedding 😊

Happy planning!

I have no advice for you, since I'm in the same spot, only we are looking to postpone. I don't know what to think.

Our wedding was originally April 2021 but we changed it to a Zoom style wedding end of July this year, so next month! We also still have our April venue booked. I️ say all this to say we worried about the same things and figured why wait, the marriage is about us and what makes us happy. This way everyone still gets to see us get married and be apart of it versus FH grandparents not being able to come or his parents sense they could not be asymptomatic and respond badly if they got COVID. You just never know if someone will be here tomorrow. So yes I️ worry A lot that’s why we’ve decided to change things. I’ll have to call my venue soon to cancel.

I sure hope it's better by then because we moved our July 2020 wedding to April 2021. If it's not safe, i think we're just going to forgo the whole thing unfortunately. I'm not about to plan a wedding for a 3rd time.

We eloped on May 30, 2020 (our original date) and postponed our bigger wedding and reception (60-80 guests) to June 12, 2021. All of our planning was done pre-Covid - we had paid all of our deposits and booked all of our vendors before the coronavirus was a threat, so postponing made sense to us because we had already done the work and paid the money. I have some serious doubts that things will be improved to the point where people are freely celebrating again in the way that we are so accustomed to, so if necessary we will postpone again (assuming our vendors will accommodate us) until we can hold an event that feels right. If our vendors are unwilling to shift our deposits a second time, we'll probably just forgo it and have an informal party at a future date when it feels right.

If I were planning a wedding now, I would think of a way to have a small, budget friendly, super flexible event, probably with just a handful of our closest friends. I could see renting an AirBnB or hosting a party at a friends house that had some property - renting a tent and hosting dinner and dancing for 30-40 of our dearest loved ones. Or doing a small ceremony followed by an intimate dinner party and then breaking out into smaller celebrations with different groups of friends - maybe a backyard bbq with some, camping with others, etc. I think it's highly likely that coronavirus will persist through next year and we won't be back at the point where folks are hugging and dancing and gathering in large groups unmasked again. Of course its possible we'll all be more accustomed to social distancing and it won't feel as weird and isolating as it does right now, but I think the weddings we were used (with grandma and grandpa, 200+ guests, and people from all over the country dancing together) to are closer to 2-4 years away then around the corner in 2021.

First we were booked for April 2020, then we moved to August 2020, now we are booked for April 2021. If it gets canceled AGAIN, I am not rebooking a 4th time, even if that means loosing our money.

I would wait. We just pushed our October 2020 wedding to April 2021. I would like to think there would be a handle on the virus or a viable vaccine.

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Same here! If April 2021 doesn't work, I give up!

We are having the exact same dilemma! We've paid the deposit for our venue and wedding planner, but not for anything else. We're trying to decide if we should just cancel our May 2021 wedding while we can still easily get out.

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Can I ask what you decided? We are April 2021 and have a huge payment due to our venue next month. We're worried things still won't be safe but we'll be locked in for April with our money tied up, if the state government decides to re-open. I can't imagine holding an event where people feel unsafe, but also April feels so far away so maybe things will be better? Totally waffling on what to do!

View Quoted Comment We contacted our venue to ask if we could cancel our contract. It said we could get our deposit money back as long as someone rebooked, so we decided to go ahead and give them notice in hopes that it’ll get rebooked! We had a big payment coming up in October so we have been excused from that. We’re going to do a small family only ceremony on May 1.

View Quoted Comment Hey! We decided to cancel our original venue and plans for a larger ceremony and opted for a smaller venue with maybe 30 guests. We decided to spend the money on the honeymoon since there’s so much unknown. We still kept the same date in April, but just going much smaller and intimate. Most of our guests (like 80%) were out of state, so we figured keeping it with our closest friends and family would be easier. It’s a hard decision for sure!

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Got it, thanks for responding! I'm so glad you were able to work something out with the venue and hopefully you'll get that deposit back too. I love that you're keeping your wedding in May - I hope you have the best day! We're leaning towards cancelling the big wedding and having a small backyard wedding in April as well.

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Thank you for the response! Definitely a hard decision, although one of my friends (who is also planning a wedding) recently said "there are no easy decisions during COVID" and that hit home. I do love a smaller wedding, because you can spend more quality time with the most important people in your lives. And that will be one heck of a honeymoon, once things settle down. We are leaning towards cancelling and having a small backyard wedding with our immediate family. It's so helpful to hear what other people decided because I sometimes think I am overreacting but there is just a lot of unknowns.

We pushed our October 2020 wedding to April 2021, and I go through waves of feeling good about our choice and then feeling like April will still be a mess. I just hope by then things will be more normal. We are getting married in April regardless, but I really hope that it’s the wedding I dream about! FH and I both don’t want to feel like we postponed for nothing 😩

It's impossible to predict what will happen, but unless you like the idea of a micro-wedding (I've been to some great ones recently, so it's not that bad an idea), you might be able to find a compromise. If it were me I would find a venue with an outdoor area and get a large wedding tent and hold it outside. Big tents can be heated and air conditioned if necessary. Of course, I would do that anyway! I love outdoor weddings.