July Brides Concerned?

We're getting married on the same date and are getting more and more anxious by the day. I can't offer any advice, but I'm so sorry that you're enduring the same concerns and uncertainty.

We're Australian and our Federal Government recently announced new restrictions that limit weddings to five people only for the foreseeable future; the bride, groom, celebrant (officiant) and two witnesses. Under these new regulations, we would have to choose between our four parents as witnesses, which isn't ideal for obvious reasons!

We've spent today trying to come up with some sort of contingency plan and we're tossing up between three options:

1. Continue planning as though the wedding will take place as planned in July and give ourselves until the end of April to decide if we will need to postpone. We'd have to accept the fact that waiting may reduce our options for new dates due to limited availability;

2. In the event that the restrictions are not lifted in time, proceed with a compliant legal ceremony on our current wedding date, and postpone the actual "wedding" with all the bells and whistles until a later date in 2021 - perhaps around our one year anniversary; or

3. Make the call now to postpone entirely until 2021, pending the availability and cooperation from our vendors.

We are honestly completely torn on what to do. The situation here in Australia is far less worrisome than in other countries, however there's no way to tell whether we're following the same trajectory or not at this stage. It feels like such a gamble! We're also feeling heartbroken for our wedding vendors as their small businesses are already suffering as a result of these new regulations.

I truly hope you can find a solution that works for you and that will put your mind at ease!

I’m praying it has subsided by then (that’s my birthday weekend, I have plans). Again the point of the restrictions are to flatten the curve, not to make us stay in hiding until there are no more cases.
Right now I would just consider what alternative you would prefer to go with IF the restrictions are still in place, but do your best to not stress out about it right now. I know I know, easier said then done. I’ve done my share of stressing about it too.

View Quoted Comment Thanks for your feedback! We just discussed this last night and are also considering either pospoting until 2021 or just going to the courthouse and then having the formal wedding at a much later date. We are in,the US and I think I read also about restrictions limiting weddings to 5 ppl. I have not verified that yet. I am going to start contingency planning and call our vendors today. I'm glad that Im not alone in all this. I wish you the best with yours.

View Quoted Comment Thanks girl and Happy early Birthday. I guess my biggest concern about moving everything to different date is that that we will be in the second wave of rescheduled weddings drastically reducing available dates and putting some much pressure of next year's dates. I'm not panicking yet tho...my way of dealing with anxiety is developing plans b through d..lol...i hope you get to keep your Birthday plans...
Let's all say a little prayer that the world will be restored to what it was....

Hey girl, my date is 7/11/2020 as well and at first I was freaking out a lot but my mom and FH have helped in calming me down. With that being said we are continuing as normal although I have held off on ordering more things just in case. Worst case scenario we will have a dinner just for our closets family members. Other than that we moving forward and whoever comes good, of course understanding that quiet of our guest that were coming from over seeing may be not be able too because of all that's going on.

Also July 11! As of now we're planning as normal. We will probably make a decision late May or early June if things are still restricted. We are likely leaning towards going to the courthouse or having a super small ceremony and bigger reception later. My gut says we'll still get to have our wedding as planned but of course we'll have to see how things play out.

I’m getting married on 7/11/20 as well. Right now I’m holding out hope as the weather continues to warm. Since the majority of our guest are all coming from different areas of the country, I’m not sure what to expect. I am waiting to send out invitations a little longer in hopes to see things start to calm down. We will continue to monitor and will decide more in the next month or early May.

Hi Jasmita! Across the board it sounds like July couples are understandably anxious, but keeping their original plans and taking a watch-and-wait approach for now. Proactively reviewing vendor contracts and thinking about what plan B could look like has also been helpful for personal peace of mind!

FYI - We've started gathering initial resources in our COVID-19 Wedding Support Central, and I've also seen a lot of July brides connecting in this discussion: July 2020 Weddings!