BROOKE & VAUGHN
November 6, 2020
Photography By: K Star's
Has COVID-19 thrown you every single curve ball you could possibly think of while planning your wedding? Have you been thinking of these three words way too frequently? Reschedule. Postpone. Cancel. My experience with planning MULTIPLE weddings during the pandemic has given me 3 main takeaways that I believe every bride should weigh out and consider before batting the COVID pitch. So...Batter Up!
1. ALWAYS pick the option that is going to put less stress on you and your fiancé.
For me, planning a wedding was something I have always wanted to be a fun process. Stress-free was key for us. When it came to deciding whether or not to move forward with the destination wedding or to move the wedding to NC, it was a very hard decision; however in the end, it was becoming too stressful for us.
I was staying up at night and waking up in the early morning thinking about what the right decision was. Do I reschedule/postpone hoping that this will all go away? Do I cancel and move the wedding to NC? We felt that we were constantly being told that we could no longer have this, or no longer do that due to COVID policies that the resort had put in place. We decided to move our dream destination wedding from Jamaica to NC four months before our wedding date. This was key to allowing me to plan a second wedding stress free. I did not feel pressed for time. As a matter of fact, I had plenty of time to plan a wedding in four months all with the help of a planner/coordinator of course. I know that if I had waited 60 days before my original wedding date to cancel and move it to NC that the stress would have been immense. Getting married to your best friend is supposed to be fun, special and something you will always cherish... not stressful or dreadful.
"My main point is...DON’T WAIT. Make the decision early enough to allow yourself time to re-plan and make the needed changes."
2. Do what is best for you and your family.
Keeping those in mind who you are most concerned about being present on your wedding day is a real thing. My grandmother who is 85 years of age had agreed to go to Jamaica and was willing to go during a pandemic to see her first granddaughter get married—Yes, my 85 year old grandmother who just lost her husband was going to travel 12+ hours alone to see me get married!
When COVID started to worsen, I knew that I wanted my grandmother to be there on the day of my wedding and that this is not something I wanted to give up. I had to re-evaluate how important it was for us that our families were able to attend. She was one of the main reasons we decided to move the wedding to NC. It was not safe for her to travel at her age at the current time of the pandemic and I did not want to put her at risk.
If you have family members that would be required to travel especially long distances I would recommend that you consider their health and the risk that they would be taking to see you get married. It is also important to consider how many of your guests will be required to travel for your wedding. During this time, I also considered a live stream of my wedding for those who chose not to come due to the virus or for those who were medically compromised and could not make it.
3. Plan for the worst, hope for the best!
While planning my second NC wedding there were times when I asked my venue and other vendors questions regarding COVID policies and a lot of times the answers were along the lines of “This is what the current policy is; however, by November we are hopeful that this will change and the number will go up”. That was not helpful as I was constantly waiting for the Governor to make an announcement, but I remained hopeful knowing well that my guest-count number could drastically change at any given time.
And just when you think waiting on a policy was the worst ball you could hit, there was the final hit that would strike you out taking you straight to the bleachers: having to “UN-INVITE” guests. We did not plan to have anymore than 80 as we knew at this point that all we were doing was “hoping” for a change, but before we knew it, 80 turned out to be the perfect number. We were both so appreciative for this guest cap as it actually allowed us to walk around and speak to every single one of our guests and to enjoy our night (dancing, eating cake, etc.) rather than rushing to the next thing or the next person.
Just in case you are curious...
We are so blessed and lucky that we decided to move the wedding locally when we did because we were able to find a venue that was available on the same date so we did not have to change our wedding date and the resort in Jamaica is still not currently open to guests. Had I listened to the representative at the resort in Jamaica and waited until two months before my wedding to move it, we would not have pulled off (what-turned-out-to-be) our dream wedding in NC.