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Beginner August 2021

Destination Wedding in France - travel ban - please help !!

Tia, on June 30, 2020 at 9:51 PM Posted in Community Conversations 0 7
My fiancé and I really need some advice, please help !!!!!

Our wedding is planned for late October this year and is taking place in France as my fiancé is a French native. Most all our guests live in France (my fiancé's family/friends) and even though we sent about 40 invites to my family in U.S., we know most won't come. In fact, only about 8 guests from my side consider coming. But we sent the Save the Dates to everyone to include them regardless.

So we had booked our venue, photographer and videographer (and our flight) then the pandemic hit and everything was put on hold. But then recently after discussing with our wedding planner (based in France) we started to resume planning again as the situation in France is getting better. So we are very optimistic that all our French guests will still be able to attend.

However the biggest problem we face is the travel ban from U.S. to France. We just found out today that the EU has extended the ban for American travelers with no clear date when this will be lifted. Some say at least through summer, but we just have no clue.

So the BIG QUESTION is... if there is the possibility the travel ban is lifted by September or even early October do we still move forward (???) since the majority of our guests are French and most U.S. guests we know wouldn't be coming anyway. confused.png

If we do this however, how do we handle the wedding invitations for our U.S. guests ??
We haven't done our invites yet, we were just about to start working on them as we need to send to U.S. guests at least 2-3 months prior.

-My fiancé suggested having our invites printed with blank date so we can handwrite it, that way if we are forced to postpone we didn't waste money on invites and can just write in our new date. Thoughts???

But with the travel ban still in effect how do we convey to our U.S. guests that we understand there's a travel ban but are hopeful it'll be lifted in time for them to come ??? O_o. We're at such a loss on this.

We just really don't want to make that decision to postpone until we absolutely HAVE to (if travel ban still in effect in October and we literally cannot go) since we're so sure all our French guests (the majority) will still be able to attend.

Please help !! Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Remaining Hopeful xoxo

7 Comments

Latest activity by Elizabeth, on July 3, 2020 at 9:06 AM
  • Brenda
    Savvy October 2021
    Brenda ·
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    Maybe wait until early August to decide and send the invitations. From what I heard in the news, it seem like Europe will be monitoring the cases in the USA and evaluate every 2 weeks whether the travel ban stays in place or not. This whole situation is horrible for all of us COVID brides.😌 Hopefully things work out for you guys. 🤞🏽
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  • H
    Master July 2019
    Hannah ·
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    I like your fiance's idea. Are you currently in France or are you in the US? You stated it's a destination wedding so wasn't clear if it's a destination for you.
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  • Jill
    Jill ·
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    If you are currently in the US, then the travel ban applies to you as well? If so, I would postpone. If you are currently in France, I would go ahead with ceremony and livestream it for US family/friends if ban is still in effect and then maybe have small ceremony in US at later date.
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  • A
    Super December 2020
    Anais ·
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    Hey I’m in the opposite situation haha French and living/getting married in the US and right now the US isn’t allowing tourists so I’m worried my French family won’t be able to come (wedding in December).
    I think it’s a great idea to think of live-streaming as your Plan B, if you’re ok getting married without your family there if the ban is still in effect. But that is if you’re in France right now... if you’re in the US that would be more difficult although could you fly to another country, stay there and quarantine for 2 weeks and then go to France?
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  • M
    VIP January 2019
    Maggie ·
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    This exactly. If there's any chance YOU won't be able to attend your own wedding, I would postpone until this is no longer a worry.

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  • Lynnie
    WeddingWire Administrator October 2016
    Lynnie ·
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    I also heard on the news that the EU will be updating their travel list every two weeks, so hopefully you'll have a lot more clarity before you have to send out invitations!

    I also think your fiancé's idea of printing invitations without the date is really clever!

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  • E
    Just Said Yes September 2021
    Elizabeth ·
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    I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. My fiance and I just postponed our mid-September wedding in Greece until September 2021. Most of our guests were traveling from the U.S., though, and it felt too uncertain to proceed in two months. If you are already in France, it seems safe to move ahead and keep an eye on the situation. We actually chose to go paperless using AppyCouple for all our invites, etc., prior to the virus, so we have been keeping people informed that way.
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