Where to start...

Hello & congratulations on your engagement! ?


We are planning on getting married early July 2021, we had the date before the recent announcement reducing to 15 people. We already chose a venue and had down 50 day guests (though kids were on top of this) and 100+ evening guests. We have spoken to the venue and they said that if the numbers go down due to restrictions we will get a refund for the difference or we can move the date.Like you, we could manage on a total of 50. We would struggle with 30 but said we’d likely go ahead with it, but if still 15 then a definite no.
I think if you’re looking at October you have more chance of things being back to some normality.
As for wedding insurance, I’ve not taken this out myself as yet but from other threads I’ve read it seems people are struggling to get insurance at the moment due to Covid.
Our venue has said we can pay the deposit by credit card, which will offer us some security if things go wrong.For me it’s everything else that’s stressing me out, I feel we should have booked a number of things by now but I’m reluctant when things are still so uncertain. I think we are going to wait until the new year and then look at booking other things. It’s hard though!!
Good luck with your planning, hopefully we will all have the wedding we want next year ?

Also sorry to hear about your Dad! I hope he makes a speedy recovery and can enjoy your big day with no concerns for safety ?

Congratulations! We're also getting married in October 2021, having gotten engaged during lockdown

We haven't tried to take out insurance, but agreed with the venue when we booked that it would be the same price to change the date if restrictions get in the way of our wedding day. Having said that, my fiance and I have agreed that as long as there are about 25-30 guests allowed, we will still go ahead. Like you, I don't want to wait any longer to start having children, so if the restrictions stay at 15 (which wouldn't cover just my family, let alone any other guests), then I figure we'll get married legally and have the reception another time when we are allowed again.

Our guest list is currently 60 people, with a fair amount of certain that some (elderly or overseas relatives) will decline regardless of the Covid situation. We will still invite them all and hope that, should we have to rescind the invitation, they will be understanding of the circumstances. I've sorted lots of other things out for the wedding, including flowers, cake, rings... I'm trying to be positive that all these things will be needed, which isn't my usual position on things but it helps at the moment. (Not to mention, regardless of whether there is a big wedding, I will still be eating cake!!!)

I'm sorry to hear about your dad - hopefully he'll be doing well by this time next year and the health situation will have gone away to a degree. If not, I'm sure he'd want to be there for your wedding even if it meant not shielding for one day!

Hi Louise

Congrats on your engagement and planning! We've also booked for October 2021. We're working with a guest list of 30-40 daytime, and then up to 120 evening if allowed although we'll still go ahead if we can only have 30 for the whole day, as like you we don't want to wait too long! Luckily, our venue works for both numbers (with some clever styling to make it more intimate for just 30!)

I looked at insurance this weekend, and the only one I could find that are still selling new policies is covermywedding. I'm not that impressed by the policy, so we've decided to wait until January to take out insurance, in the hope that things may be starting to ease. January is also when we pay a big chunk of the venue cost so would like to be covered before that payment. I'm struggling to get suppliers to accept anything other than BACS.

Also, any new insurance policy won't cover for any COVID related incidents, so it is really to cover other possibilities such as illness, supplier failure etc. I've made sure to get all suppliers to put in writing in email what they're COVID cancellation policy is, in case we were to be restricted to 15 people and therefore would want to move the date.

Sending best wishes for your Dad as well. Fingers crossed we'll be on a path to normality by next October!

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Hi Holly,

Totally in the same boat here re insurance/suppliers (early May wedding, 100 guests). We have just made sure our suppliers are crystal clear in emails (since its an amendment to their standard contract terms) what would happen if we're forced to postpone due to covid restrictions.

Most of them said they would be flexible and move to a new date, and if they can't do the new date, then we get the deposit back. Only 2 have said we wouldn't get the deposit back but these are quite small deposits (e.g. £50 for make up person). We can get through this!