If you’ve come to the daunting conclusion that you need to postpone your wedding, you have plenty of emotions and thoughts rushing through your mind. There are so many people to tell, and so many vendors to contact — just breathe and stay positive. Remember that, no matter when your wedding takes place, it will always be a celebration of your love. We’re here to help you through the process of learning how to postpone a wedding.
Whether in troubling times, like the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the plans of many couples, or in other, more positive situations like a job change and resulting move, you will need tips for changing your wedding date. It can be a stressful time no matter the cause, but this guide to postponing your wedding will help walk you through what you need to consider.
Tips for Changing Your Wedding Date
Be sure to check in with your wedding vendors. Some vendors may rollover your deposit for the new wedding date and only charge you a change fee, so you don’t lose out on the money you’ve already invested. Plus, your wedding is your special day, so don’t throw out the opportunity to celebrate just because you have to postpone.
Brides who have been working with a wedding planner throughout the planning process will have an easier time postponing their wedding. A wedding planner can help contact vendors and organize your new wedding date. If you didn’t work with a wedding planner, don’t worry. We’ll show you how to reschedule a wedding with these tips:
1. Check Your Insurance
Wedding insurance and other terms with venue and vendor contracts can give you some options when it comes to postponing. Review the terms of your insurance and contracts to see if your situation is covered or if there’s any sort of safety net. Wedding insurance, a cancellation policy in particular, often covers various situations. It may cover reasons for postponing like severe weather, injury or illness to the bride, groom or family members and other situations, but it depends on your policy.
2. Reach out to Vendors
With your insurance policy and contract specifics in mind, it’s time to reach out to your vendors and suppliers. Create a checklist of the vendors you’ve been working with to plan your wedding, so you don’t forget to contact anyone. Your vendor and supplier checklist may include your:
- Venue
- Catering
- Florist
- Band or DJ
- Photographer and videographer
- Rental services
To stay even more organized, write down information such as how much you’ve already paid and confirmation information for reference before you call. Vendors may ask for those details on the phone, or you can provide them in an email, depending on your preferred method of contact. Brides who are rescheduling their wedding may find that sending an email with your information and situation, then requesting a time to speak over the phone works best.
Try not to stress if your vendors and suppliers don’t respond to your calls or emails right away. Do what you can and contact everyone on your checklist, then try to reach out again. If you’re dealing with a postponed wedding during the COVID-19 crisis, remember that many businesses are currently closed. Some owners may provide other ways to reach them on their websites or social media, so do a bit of research as you reach out.
Your goal when you contact your vendors is to either reschedule your wedding to a new date with that vendor or request a refund if they aren’t available. When you call your vendors and let them know you’re changing your wedding date, they’ll work with you to reschedule. If a date is open, they may even keep what money you’ve already put into your wedding and only charge a change fee, so don’t be afraid to discuss their policies.
Remember that your vendors are running businesses, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic or severe weather, they will be overwhelmed with other cancellations and postponements. Be professional, but express concerns you have as you figure out a plan.
3. Prioritize Your Vendors and a New Date
Postponing your wedding comes with the difficult decision of picking a new date for your celebration. If you’re facing this challenge during the uncertain times of the COVID-19 pandemic, picking a new date within a year means you’ll want to act fast, as other couples will be postponing their weddings as well.
Certain vendors have been giving priority to brides who have made bookings that must be postponed due to the pandemic, but you’ll still want to book new dates soon. If your vendor is willing to work with you and you’re able to use your previous deposit to cover the new date, you’ll have one less thing to worry about.
Now, you’ll have to pick a new date. Before you pick one, speak with close friends, family and members of the wedding party to avoid potential scheduling conflicts. If you want to work with the same wedding officiant, be sure to speak with them when you reschedule, as well. Keep anyone’s needs or potential conflicts in mind as you move forward with planning.
Having an attachment to a particular date may make choosing the same date in a year or two difficult if it doesn’t fall on a weekend. While you could get a discount and have an easier time booking on a Sunday or weekday, it may not be ideal for your guests. If you do plan to go that route, speak with important guests to see if they’d mind a weekday celebration.
You may also have to deal with possible conflicts between vendors. While some will be available on your new date, it might not work out with others. In that case, you’ll need to sort out your vendor priorities, which can be challenging. Follow these tips to prioritize certain suppliers:
- Prioritize your vendors based on your budget and how much you want to work with a particular vendor.
- You’ll likely want to prioritize your venue first over others, so start with them and work down from there.
- Choose other vendors based on how much you put down in your deposit to save the most money.
- Be flexible with some suppliers and have back-ups in mind.
4. Reuse What You Can
Depending on how close your original wedding date was, you may have ordered printed goods and other things specific to your wedding, including decorations and food. While flowers and food are perishable, you can hold onto your decorations and printed items for your rescheduled date.
Use these tips to repurpose what you have on-hand:
- Don’t waste food: If you made or already received some desserts or other food for your postponed wedding, consider giving away food to friends and neighbors, so nothing goes to waste.
- Gift or donate flowers: Contact your florist as soon as you know you need to postpone, but sometimes, emergencies happen. If your flowers have been arranged and delivered already, gift them to others or see if you can donate them to another wedding, a hospital or a nursing home to brighten someone’s day instead of letting them wilt.
- Cover the original date: Get creative with ways to cover dates or other specifics on your programs and other printed items. Wax seals, monograms, stickers, floral accents, ribbons and other items that suit your wedding theme can hide incorrect information. That will take some things off your to-do list since you won’t have to order and pay for entirely new prints.
- Make verbal corrections: Certain designs may not lend themselves to quick fixes. If you can’t cover up certain details, especially in your program, feel free to reuse them but have the officiant announce small corrections. Your guests will know the circumstances surrounding your wedding’s new date, so no one will judge you for reusing supplies you ordered before.
5. Ask for Help
You’re not in this alone. Whether you recruit your spouse-to-be, your wedding party or close friends and family, a little help will go a long way, especially if you don’t have a wedding planner. Let some loved ones — who you invited to the wedding — know how much you’d appreciate their help as you change your wedding date. Volunteers can help with:
- Looking into possible new dates for your wedding.
- Researching new venues if needed.
- Contacting your booked vendors on your behalf.
- Repurposing supplies you already have for your wedding.
- Finding places that would take donations of flowers or food.
How to Announce a Wedding Date Change
With your celebration postponed, it’s time to let your guests know the news. You should’ve already called your close friends, family and wedding party, so now you have the rest of your guest list to notify. Use these methods for announcing a wedding date change to keep your guests in the loop:
- Send an email to your guests.
- Post an update on your wedding website.
- Call guests who aren’t as tech-savvy.
Just as you sent out save the dates, you can now mail out change the dates for a formal way to address the change. It will also provide your guests with a physical reminder of the new date in case they didn’t get the digital notification. Be sure to include the venue for your wedding in your change the dates — and if it’s changed, highlight that fact in your notification. If your wedding is on a new day of the week, be sure to emphasize that in your change the dates, as well.
Help Your Guests When You Postpone Your Wedding
If you have guests who planned to visit from out of town for your wedding, speak with their accommodations about postponing their stay. Depending on the location, your guests may have to reach out for a refund or booking change themselves, but it will be considerate if you find out this information and pass it along when you tell them you postponed your wedding.
Prepare for a Change to Your Guest List
It’s an unfortunate truth that your guest list may get shorter because some of your friends and family members won’t be able to make it for the new date. Be understanding and remember to coordinate with close friends and loved ones before choosing a new date to keep up your positive RSVPs.
In a more positive light, you may get yeses from those who had scheduling conflicts before you changed the date of your wedding. With any luck, those who can now make it will balance out anyone who can’t. Be sure to create some space in your budget and prepare to contact your venue and vendors if your guest list ends up a little longer than it was for your original wedding date. Everyone might be able to make it, but you should prepare for other outcomes, as well.
If you end up with a smaller guest list after postponing your wedding, it may be tempting to go to your B-list and fill in the gaps. This will prevent you from losing out on money you invested in food, seating and place settings, but be careful. Any time you invite guests from your B-list, you risk having them feel like they weren’t important enough for the first round of invitations. To navigate inviting your B-list to your rescheduled wedding, you should:
- Send invitations to everyone in a circle of friends or family, so no one feels left out.
- If you can, invite everyone from your B-list at once after getting RSVPs from your first list.
- Avoid letting them know they’re on the B-list.
- Give them as generous of an RSVP time as you can.
Some B-list guests may be more understanding, given the circumstances of your postponed wedding. Hopefully, they’ll be grateful for the chance to celebrate your love and happiness with you.
Prepare for Your Wedding With Alexandra’s Bridal Boutique
We know that postponing a wedding for any reason is a stressful process to go through. At Alexandra’s Bridal Boutique, we would be happy to help you get the perfect gown for your celebration to remove one essential item from your to-do list. Whether your new date is during a different season than you originally planned and you need a new dress or you haven’t found your wedding dress yet, Alexandra’s Bridal Boutique will help you through the selection process.
Schedule your appointment today, or contact us with any questions you have about finding your perfect dress. Begin the search online and get inspired with our collection of designer dresses.