Postponing but Eloping on your og Date

Ok, so we eloped on our original date with only my hubby's best friend who got ordained online to be our minister. We set up a zoom and had him stand out in the hall of our apartment complex, so our pictures are pretty nonexistent. I wore what was going to be my exit dress and carried a small bouquet we got at the grocery store. It was rough not having our families here, but we intend on doing a full wedding with vows in August as well. This was more for our own peace of mind and to preserve our date.

We had my fiancé’s brother get ordained and we’re in the process of still getting our marriage license but we plan to go to my fiancé’s grandparents cabin and elope just us and a photographer and maybe his parents. Unfortunately it would close to a 3/4 hours for my parents which I understand! We still plan to read our vows pop some champagne and for our big wedding we will write new vows

We are planning either a ceremony at home or at our original venue with just our a couple people present while streaming it to everyone else via Zoom. Afterwards we want to do dinner, cake cutting, and maybe a tiny bit of dancing. Our caterer won't let us cancel our contract so we are stuck with a price that was originally meant to feed 175 so we are going to have him do a very fancy meal for us.

View Quoted Comment What?!! That’s crazy. My food and venue were the easiest to cancel because most counties have put restrictions on food being served. If the caterer legally can’t serve it how can they keep your $$?

View Quoted Comment He will let us postpone however he won’t let us cancel and since postponing is so up in the air for us we didn’t want to reserve it so we asked to cancel. He absolutely won’t let us. He said he can alter it for the number we want or save it for a gathering later on but he can’t refund us or cancel it because he already spent the money

View Quoted Comment I think that’s a pretty typical reaction by the vendor but I’d check your contract. My wedding was supposed to be April 11th and the venue wasn’t allowed by local/state law to serve food so it might be different situation if yours is in the future and not covered by these stay at home orders.

My Fiance and I were supposed to get married on May 16th but postponed the wedding until December. We are still having a small wedding on the 16th, with just his family and my family. I am wearing a shorter, simpler dress than my full wedding gown, and we are having dinner and drinks all together afterward. I ordered a small cake from Publix, some flowers from Sam's Club, and a couple other decorations. Wedding and dinner after will be hosted in my parent's backyard. We are calling it "Wedding Part 1" and we refer to the wedding in December as "Wedding Part 2"

Our ceremony on May 16th is going to be shorter and not include our unity ceremony, readings, etc. We also will not have the bridal party or the groomsmen with us on the 16th, we plan on saving all of that for December. My parents are still going to walk me down the aisle, but we'll save all the special dances, etc. for December, too.

People can have opinions all they want, but I'm calling both of them "my wedding" (not a vow renewal). Our wedding in December will be just as significant as the one on May 16th. Friends and family are super understanding of doing 2 weddings in times like these, so there is no need to make one less significant than the other. Both are special and unique!

We’re doing a small ceremony in June as planned with about 25 people. Parents, grandparents, and the bridal party (which is mostly our siblings anyways). We’re going back and forth between having the ceremony at our church or just having it in my parents’ backyard. After we will do a “mini” reception type deal at my parents’ house and party with everyone who was there. If bars are reopened, we might head there later. Then in September, we are going to have our reception and I spoke to our venue about adding a short vow renewal before cocktail hour. We’re going to work out the details a little bit later!


I actually ordered a second dress that was simple and cheaper off of Lulus for June, because I really want all of our family and friends to see me in my dress for the first time at our large ceremony, and we are going to do a first look. We originally weren’t going to do any kind of reveal because we’re both Catholic and traditional, but now that we’ll already be married, we plan to do a first look in September. I’m actually excited to have two wedding dresses and two celebrations! I will just wear my same shoes and veil for both though.