Change of Plans

Hi, my wedding was set for October 30th. We did the same thing. We postponed our larger celebration for next year and having a micro wedding with 30-40 guests this year on the original date in our local area. I am still having a bridal shower and bachelorette party in august. I decided to host my bridal shower at home outside. My bachelorette party is going to be in my town too because I live in a shore town so we have plenty to do and we don't have to travel or stay in a hotel. I just sent out post cards that said "wedding update" and on the back I explained because of the current public health crisis we are postponing our larger wedding celebration but will be married in a private ceremony. I am still having a bridal shower because all those guests will be invited to the larger event. Honestly, there is no rule book with COVID weddings and if guests get offended I am sadly at the point, to be blunt, where I don't care. As brides were doing the best we can for the people we love. I also mentioned our reasoning for postponing was to keep our guest's health and safety a top priority. But even if you decide to have your small ceremony, then have your other bridal experiences I think it will be just as fun. You have to do what is best for you and your family in a time like this. And we still deserve to have all the bridal experiences the best we can amidst of COVID.

There are a lot of couples doing this. If you do a search on the forums and in the articles, some excellent little messages have been composed.

Most of them emphasize the safety of guests, gratitude, and how much the couple will miss their presence. Many offer a way to livestream the ceremony.

Good luck!

Goodmorning,


It seems like this is what the new norm is with COVID being around. My fiancé and I are doing the same thing, we are legally getting married in October and planning to have the actual wedding in March of next year. We’re going to “redo” the ceremony part for our March wedding so our guest can still be apart of it, we will just already be legally married so there would be no paperwork that needs to be done. Your guest should all understand as COVID is serious. Just tell them your plan, they should understand!

We sent out new save the date magnets to everyone and just invited the people who are going to be included in the ceremony separately. The magnets were just the new date, a picture of us making weird faces at each other, and the words, "let's try this again." The note we sent with them said (paraphrased) we're still getting married, but in the interest of keeping everyone safe from covid, we're moving our celebration to next year. We kept it light and got a good response. My bridal shower is happening (in a modified format) this year. I never really wanted a bachelorette party, but my fiancè will probably have his bachelor party next year because they were going to travel for it and that was obviously not feasible this year.
I think you can do whatever you want this year and whatever you want next year as long as you try not to get people sick without worrying about it being weird. "Normal" has gone out the window.

HI Kristianne! I'd send out something like "Change of Plans!" cards, that update your guests on the new plan. You can lead with something like "out of an abundance of caution for our guests" that you've decided on an intimate family ceremony. I think it really helps if you can offer to stream the ceremony for the rest of your guests, because then it feels a lot less like they were "uninvited"!

You can also check out this article which has great tips: How Do I Downsize My Guest List if I’ve Postponed My Wedding? and this forum post from another bride who dealt with a similar situation: You are uninvited letter.

I feel the same way I want to still get married this year but have a wedding in a year or two but I don't want to forfit my bridal/bachelorette party! But honestly I think I'm going to save them for the second time around, I can't invite them to a bridal shower but not the intimate wedding ceremony.

This is my current situation. My fiancé have been talking about it for two months but finally decided today to still get married this year but have the w reception with all of our guests at our one year.... I leave for my bachelorette trip tomorrow. I’m not sure at this point if I will have a bridal shower.

We've decided today to postpone our big celebration until next year. We have too many guests out of state and/or high-risk. In addition to that, we live in Texas where we just hit 10,000 new cases on Tuesday and 9,000 new cases yesterday. We want to get married on 10/24 this year still because it'll mark 6 years of being together.

I'm trying to decide if we are going to do the parties before or after we get married. Everything is still up in the air. Try to breathe and stay positive!

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I'd love to know what your note said

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Hello!
Based on the last piece of mail you received from us, you may have been expecting this envelope to contain a wedding invitation. In fact, that’s what we were planning to send around this time. Unfortunately, things have not exactly gone as planned over the last few months. We are still planning to get married this year, but we don’t want you or anyone else we care about to get sick.Given the risks involved in having large groups of people together this summer, we have decided to postpone our wedding reception to 2021. We look forward to celebrating with you next year when it’s safer to gather in person. Love,A & J