Corona - June Wedding -Advice please

One of the biggest issues I've found with couples moving dates is that their suppliers and venues aren't available on the new date and / or there's a price increase if it moves to the following year.

The problem is if you pick a date they can't do it usually means a loss of your deposit payment at the very least. Especially if you're the one to cancel or postpone.

What I'm seeing as a main issue for you is that it appears it really has to be a Saturday. Either through choice or the venue only doing Saturdays.

Something has to give, I don't know of anyone who is getting married or any suppliers who aren't being forced to make a compromise and for many accepting they have to make that decision can be a shock. Sure, if the venue are only offering Saturdays then you're stuck but every single couple of mine who has had to postpone has moved to weekdays from weekends and in a couple of cases from May/June to December/January due to venues already being booked up for 2021.

It sucks I know but your hand is being forced one way or another. I'm hopeful I'll be shooting in June but do you want to put all the stress of not knowing on your guests that you ultimately have to reassure and answer to?

Hey!!!

I feel your pain!!!

I am due to get married 24th July 2020 and like yourself have been with my partner 10 years. We're hoping everything will have settled down by then but there's just no telling.

My dress is stuck at the seamstress and I can't go try it on. My partner and grooms men haven't done their suit fittings. All my bridesmaid dresses need altering and I can't book anyone to do that (although hopefully my mum and future mother in law can be talked into this).

At the moment we're holding out for our original date but we have started to pencil in a plan B date with our suppliers who have agreed to jot us down in their books just in case 24th July can't happen. We're lucky in that they have agreed to do this.

Would it be possible for you to pencil in a date with your suppliers to see if they're offering a "just in case" date? No money has changed hands it's just a precautionary measure so I feel comfortable knowing I have a back-up plan.

As for your Saturday dilemma, could you get a date for a Sunday where the following Monday is a bank holiday? This may then act as a Saturday.

For your give notice it's a bit rubbish that they're not offering some sort of online alternative. Could you contact the registry office again and put it on them a bit and ask them what alternatives they are offering to support couples in this and push it onto them a little bit?

I'm keeping myself busy at home preparing things that I can still do whilst in lockdown (writing wedding place cards, putting together bridesmaid gift bags, ordering my signage from Etsy because a lot of those suppliers are still operating - I'm just removing the date from the signage - again just in case)!

Hopefully as time goes on things will become a bit clearer.

Wishing you the best of luck for your wedding date

Fi x

As a previous poster has said, you are going to have to look at compromises, based on what is most important to you. Is it most important that you get married on a Saturday, or that you get married this year?

Same with everything else - all you need to get married is an officiant (minister or registrar) and two witnesses. Everything else is 'optional' in the sense that it's not legally required. So I'd suggest sitting down with your OH and discussing what you are and are not willing to compromise on.

Our date is in June and we currently have no plans to change, but we will be going ahead if weddings are allowed by then, even if it's just the 'two witnesses only' type. If you want to keep your wedding as you originally planned, then it would be worth looking at a backup date midweek later on this year.

I put a deposit on a wedding dress, and was contacted by the boutique the day of the lockdown to say that I would need to postpone my wedding as they wouldn't be able to alter my dress in time! They are now closed with no way of contacting them. So I'm looking for a dress online that can either be altered at home or worn without alteration. It's annoying that I don't get to wear the dress I picked (and even more annoying that they are hanging onto the deposit!!!!) but my decision is that I'd rather go ahead with the ceremony than delay just so my dress can be altered.

Since you have your dress already, it would be worth contacting local seamstresses to see what kind of timescale they will be looking at to alter a dress - depending on what they say, that will give you an idea of whether or not the dress can be altered in time. Same with other things - make a list of everything that needs to be done, contact suppliers to ask how much notice they will need - the more information you have, the better you will be able to come to the right decision. And the right decision is the one that works best for you and your OH regardless of what other couples have decided to do. Best wishes to you - it's a horrible mess to be sorting out and none of us ever thought we'd have to be dealing with this, but somehow, whatever decisions we make, we will end up married to our partners, and that's all that really counts.