Illinois Brides! Let’s be friends!

Hi hi! We have a venue in Naperville booked for 10/16/21. I am hopeful that this date will still be okay but hesitant to really plan anything. Haven't even sent out save the dates... Current guest list is around 175. Trying to decide if it's best to preemptively cut it down and have in my mind already that we will be having a smaller wedding or be optimistic and plan for the 175... How far in this planning process should I be ~10 months out? I have a venue and a photographer and thats it (haven't gone dress shopping yet).

It is hard when you want to plan and be excited, but others don't want to share in the excitement! Our original wedding date was in October too. We did get legally married, just the two of us on our original wedding date, but we postponed our wedding for 7/31/21 (Oak Brook, IL). In a way it did kind of work out for the best - October turned out to be a stressful time and the additional time to plan (and make payments!) was a blessing. Remaining hopeful at this point that we won't have to uninvite anyone, since we have vaccines now! However, we are also aware that less people may actually attend. Trying to stay positive about everything at this point. I know I felt a lot of relief when we postponed our October wedding, but when we made that decision we decided we wouldn't postpone again no matter what. Hope everything works out for your May wedding and you don't need to postpone again!

Sooo does that mean gatherings of up to 50 people are allowed now??

I feel your angst! 10/08/21 is our new date - we pushed it from April 2021 last year because we were nervous. We did send save the dates...in a perfect scenario these are the people we'd want at our wedding, if we're still in a pandemic they'll understand if we have to make adjustments. I'm moving ahead as if we're having a wedding so we've booked all the big things: venue, photog, florist, dj. Whether we have 50 people or 100 we're going to need pictures, some music, and some flowers. I made sure my venue removed the minimum so we're not liable if we can't have the 180 guests we're inviting. If we are able to invite everyone and we get less people willing to show up then everyone gets more expensive food. I'll deal with making cuts in a few months once we see how the vaccine roll-out is going. I went dress shopping over the holidays and bought one - I bet you can still afford to wait 2-3ish months and not have a problem, I've been told my dress will ship sometime in the spring. At this point I'm mentally committed to embracing the process as much as possible. It doesn't seem like it but we're in more optimistic place than some of our fellow spring and summer bride-sisters according to the reports. My only encouragement is to consider giving your guests as much notice as possible - with the right arrangements people can drive instead of fly...or plan a week long vacation around your wedding that would better accommodate quarantine requirements. Good Luck!

Hi everyone and congrats! 5.22.21 Chicago bride, rescheduled from 11.7.20 (but still got legally married that day.) Moving full speed ahead for May and whatever the COVID restriction will be. We significantly downsized our wedding, but still hopeful to have more than 50 people, but I am preparing for 50 maximum so if it's more than that I'll be pleasantly surprised. Thankfully, all of our vendors have been great and made rescheduling a breeze, but definitely don't wan to reschedule yet again! Currently, doing our invitations now and including a note saying all public health guidelines will be adhered to. Since we're doing digital RSVPs we'll include more information about what that means on our website and more or less disclaimer saying that could mean not everyone who's been invited will be able to come (But in a much nicer/more polite way than that), which I think the majority of people will understand these days. Planning has been stressful but reading that so many others are going through the same thing makes it easier. So thank you all for sharing your stories, and good luck as you continue to plan!