What if wedding is cancelled because of coronavirus?

I'd try to relax. Yes, there may be some more cases of the virus in CA (I think right now there is technically only one and that person is nearly fully recovered). On the news last night there were several segments about how, currently, the best way "to prepare" is to use common sense. Exercise good hand-washing practices and stay home if you are sick. If there is an extensive medical crisis, one, there's not much you'll be able to do about it, and two, there will likely be other things much more critical to worry about than your wedding. Either way, worrying now will not help you at all, so try to read official information (e.g., CDC updates rather than random internet posts) to help you stay informed about the realities. It never hurts to re-read your contracts to know what is and isn't covered in the event of a cancellation, but try not to worry about things you can't control. Hang in! You just have a month to go!

View Quoted Comment This is excellent advice. I couldn’t have said it any other way.

I think with your wedding being next month you’ll be okay. I live in California and am nervous as well, especially with the UC Davis patient getting it without being in contact with anyone who has it. It’s scary! And I definitely think we will continue to see cases pop up but don’t think it’ll go from 0 to 60 in a few weeks. The good thing is counties are declaring state of emergencies in order to better allocate resources to prepare.

I totally sympathize with your situation. My wedding is 2 months away in SF, and we just declared a "state of emergency". There's no lockdown yet, but in my industry's (video games) biggest conference of the year is in SF next month and major companies (including my own) are already pulling out, telling their employees to not go to SF for the conference.

I don't think a lockdown will happen here, and my wedding should go on as planned, but I am worried that out-of-town guests (who make up about 2/3rds of our guestlist) will bail because of coronavirus fears.

These are stressful times

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I feel your pain. Facebook just cancelled their annual conference even though it's in May. Hang in there. My international guests are already not coming. There's not much I can do except wait for the news to develop. We're having a livestream for family members that can't travel.

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Thank you for your calm words. I'm trying to tell myself it's like checking the weather for the wedding date. We just have to see and probably won't know until 1 week before the wedding.

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EXACTLY! Awesome analogy! Daughter got married a year ago January, in the middle of one of the wettest weeks in So Cal in a decade or more. She had to take solace in the fact that she'd done the best she could to plan for the possible options, but at the end of the day, whatever was going to happen was going to happen. Hang in! I agree with Kelly that it is highly unlikely we are going to go from 0 to 60 in 4 weeks.

(PS -- after 5 days of record breaking torrential rains, in the middle of the rehearsal, the rain abruptly stopped. The day of the wedding? It was 76+ degrees and gorgeous on the patio for daughter's outdoor ceremony. [I was actually a little "sweaty," but figured I probably shouldn't complain/mention it...lol!] There is only so much you can do, try to push the worries away. )

Good luck! (And, WASH THOSE HANDS! )

I understand your concern, and I think that being aware of what is going on is wise. However, I would try not to stress too much. Try to remember that, though the media's job is to share the news, it is also to get people hyped up! I don't see the country, or even states/cities, shutting down within the next month or even 2 months. They are also working on a vaccine, which is set to start trial within the coming weeks. So try to relax a little and enjoy what is left of the planning process. Once it's gone, you'll miss it .

The more cities are affected, the less likely it is that there will be a quarantine of a whole city. The original idea was that if all the cases were in Wuhan, quarantining the whole city would ensure that there were never any cases anywhere else. But that obviously proved ineffective. And once it's in a lot of cities, the likelihood is even less that quarantining any one city would help.

I don't think you need to panic yet but it never hurts to go back over your contracts to see if you are covered or not in the event you are forced to cancel/postpone.

I would say that's highly unlikely to go that way at this point, and remind yourself that all you can do is hope for the best. I'm not a particularly religious person personally, but at a certain point all the planning in the world is useless and it's in God's hands. I think a city-wide quarantine remote possibility falls into that category.

Can you still get wedding cancellation insurance just in case? We have been looking into it a little, but not enough yet to know how far in advance you need to purchase.


We were recommended wedsafe.com by one of our vendors.

I would definitely look into wedding insurance to help you feel better. Mine was only a few hundred dollars so that gives me comfort if we do need to cancel for sickness, etc. My wedding is early April so I’m also feeling anxious. Everyone will have to travel so I’m nervous about last minute cancellations but it is what it is at this point. Just need to wait it out.

Our wedding as well is at the beginning of April. I've asked multiple wedding insurance companies if they would cover cancellation due to a hypothetical coronavirus pandemic that causes cities or states to restrict travel and in short the answer is no, they won't cover it. The reason is within their contracts that state: We do not cover any expenses incurred if the Private Event is Canceled or Postponed due to any regulation or law
of any local, state or federal authority." However if the city or state is not shut down and one of the immediate family members or groom/bride gets sick it will be covered.

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That's interesting if the bride/groom is sick. I called an insurance company too and they said coronavirus is NOT covered because it is a known event now. It's not an unforeseen event anymore.

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I don't want to alarm you, but there are currently 33 cases in CA alone, and over 8000 people in quarantine.

There are 60 cases nationwide, but more likely to pop, as we do not currently have adequate testing supplies.

This is a super valid concern in CA, and I would start reaching out to your vendors NOW. I don't think it's time to panic, but I do think it's time to think out the different scenarios and repercussions, so you'll be prepared.

Ugh. I wasn't worried about this until a week ago. My destination wedding is in FL near Orlando in May. I haven't heard of any outbreaks there yet but anything can happen in the next 3 months I suppose. We have all the big stuff booked and I'm nervous about possible travel bans or lockdowns. It doesn't help that one of my MOH will be flying to FL a day after flying from a 10 day trip to Europe where I know it's bad over there. If the worst case happens, I don't have a plan B except to cut my losses and elope.

Many, if not all, of those confirmed CA cases are from people brought back from China or the Diamond Princess cruise ship and of those, very few are actually exhibiting any major symptoms. The last I heard was that there were 8000 people under surveillance since they may have had contact with someone who has now been confirmed with the virus. If those in CA are reporting differently, then perhaps media in different parts of the country are reporting differently.

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We are at 4 cases SO FAR of community transmission. 2 in California, 1 in Oregon, and 1 in Washington. It is now moving around the West Coast, and quarantines are 14 days or more.

I am honestly NOT trying to be alarmist, but if you are on the West Coast and have a wedding coming up, making contingency plans is probably in your best interest.

View Quoted Comment As someone who has studied a bit of microbiology, I’m not surprised. The virus has more than likely been floating around since the first cases out west in Washington and California where people came from Asia before the travel bans were in place.


Yes, the virus is something to be aware of if you have older relatives, just like they are more susceptible to the flu, but honestly isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be. Over half of people that have tested positive have had no symptoms (asymptomatic) or very mild symptoms, like having a cold. Most people who have died have been older people with underlying health conditions....
I will respectfully disagree about needing to make any major contingency plans about a virus that is way less sever than it’s made out to be.