Now I want to start this off by saying I want NO advice. This is just to share a funny story and maybe give some advice to other people.
My FH and I got engaged in January. We had our venue and date by February 1st. We plan on getting married in August of 2021.
I have a HUGE family. Like grandfather oldest of 8, grandmother youngest of 3 with each child of that generation have two-four children who each had two-four children. That means you invite the people closest to you for weddings and no one really bats an eye about not getting an invite (unless they are your first cousins, grandparents, or aunts and uncles).
One of my dad's cousins has four sons. I am close to him (my "Uncle Danny" as he's called) and we planned on having him invited. He also is a pastor (and was one of our options for officiants but we decided against "friendors".)
Covid hits and many brides are getting postponed to 2021 along with any bride who originally planned on 2021.
One of the sons of Dan got engaged in August of 2020. I was happy for them. They were not on our guestlist for our wedding (as the youngest of the four is still around 5 years older than me so we've never been close) and I didn't think we'd be invited to his but, we're still happy for them.
A couple of weeks ago my grandma calls me. She has this tone like someone died and I was concerned. Only to find out the reason she is being all dramatic was because that second cousin was struggling to find a venue that was open in 2021 and finally found one with an open date in August. That date just happens to be my wedding date. Now like I said I'm not upset about it because they would have no idea I was getting married that day.
HOWEVER, it turns out they did not ask their dad (a pastor) if he was available that day. Obviously, I don't mind if he doesn't come to my wedding because that's his son. But, what would have happened if he was already busy with a client (both FH and I were glad we chose to go with a different pastor). If they were having trouble finding a venue opened with their date, it was possible that Dan would have been busy officiated a ceremony. (Again they got lucky because I had told him my date back in May so he would have left it opened, making him open to officiate their ceremony and to attend with no consequences).
Unlike my grandma, I found it funny because they didn't check with the pastor father. I also can't wait to see if my godmother (my dad's sister who has already been complaining about the distance our wedding is from her) will chose to go to this wedding instead of mine (no sweat off my back, less drama if she doesn't come but, I would love to see my grandma's reaction to her decision).
So yeah my advice is if you are having trouble getting a venue/date ask if they could hold the date for you for at least 24 hours or if not 24 hours maybe a couple of hours so you can check with important family members that there is no current roadblock for that date. Especially with 2021 having so many weddings due to 2020 postponements.
Hope you enjoyed this funny story as much as I did when it happened. (I had to try not to laugh as my grandma was telling me on the phone).
