May 2021 Wedding—don’t know what to do!

Christine! Oh my that sounds crazy on your venue’s part - geez you try so hard to keep businesses going but I’m so surprised they won’t allow an outdoor tent! I’m so sorry you are dealing with this, but I have good news for you. I had 10 days to find a new ceremony location outdoors for my wedding (we ended up loving it!) so this is doable.


A lot of brides last summer did beautiful backyard wedding receptions. If you have a talented florist, you would be amazed at what they can do! I would see if your venue is willing to deliver their catering to a possible backyard wedding. I suggest not pulling out of your venue until you have a solid backup plan in place. My Plan Z turned out to be the wedding of my dreams ❤️

Hi Christine! I'm a Michigan bride as well, but my wedding was postponed from July 2020 to July 2022, so I've still got some time. Are you able to put a soft hold on a different venue, while still holding on to your current venue? That would give you the option of switching if things don't improve by end of March/early April. I saw an article earlier this week that our governor hinted at relaxing some restrictions within the next week or so, so between that and people getting the vaccine, there'll hopefully be a larger gathering size by May! It's just so difficult to know for sure though. Here's the article: https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/02/whitmer-hints-at-relaxing-some-covid-19-restrictions-in-coming-days.html


Personally, I would look for a backup venue now and ask if they can put a soft hold on your date (so that you don't have to pay a deposit yet), wait 2-3 weeks to see what restrictions (if any) are loosened, and then decide from there whether to use your current venue or switch to the backup one. With so many people postponing, venues should have more availability than normal this close to the date, so hopefully you can easily find a new venue if needed!

I don't live in Michigan but my fiance and I were kind of in a similar situation kinda. We found the perfect venue 2 years(before covid) before the wedding, asked if we could put money down, they told us not until a year before the wedding. Well a year before(during covid) the wedding comes and we asked them again if we can reserve the venue and put a deposit down, they told us no because with covid they don't know if they will be having events at all there for now, they told us to check back in January. January comes and they said the same thing that they did not want to take our money because they did not know if they would be having events in the summer but told us we could wait and see. I told my fiance we are not waiting around till the last minute to see and then be forced to slap together our wedding in the backyard. So we are just going forward with our wedding in the backyard.


If I was you I wouldn't risk it.

Oh no! I'm so sorry. I can understand why you're worried

That’s horrible & pretty crappy they’re not working with you! You’d figure they’d want the business!

View Quoted Comment Oh my word that must have been so stressful! Thanks for the inspiration and congrats!

View Quoted Comment Thanks for the advice! We put a soft hold on another venue this morning, but have to decide by Wednesday! Fingers crossed some née info comes out tomorrow or Tuesday if not we’re switching

Michigan Bride here and I'm in the same boat, we put a deposit on our hall 2 years ago and now we're working on plan B for our back yard, We'll be getting married on our date no matter what, but come on Michigan lets try and figure something out here.

Yes we are going the samething!!! We are exploring different venues. We are trying country clubs. I feel your pain it's like we're starting all over again back at square one we had everything paid for accept $2,200 and they canceled on us as well