Hello fellow March and April brides! Our wedding was planned for April 18th in Milwaukee with more than half of our guest list coming from Chicago, Miami and Puerto Rico. Like many of you, the COVID-19 pandemic put a major wrench in our plans and we were faced with the options to cancel or postpone.
Up until this week, we found the best thing to do was to keep moving forward with our planning in hopes that everything would calm down by April and our wedding would go off as planned. That being said, things in our cities escalated quickly and we are facing way different circumstances. Our out-of-town and in-town guests were canceling left and right, and then Wisconsin banned gatherings of 50 people or more indefinitely. Immediately following, our venues were reaching out to break the news that they wouldn't be able to host our wedding on the 18th of April. As hard as it was, we had to move forward from there and decide what to do next.
My fiance and I are both hospitality and event industry professionals. In our own careers we've seen huge losses in sales and bookings due to everything with the COVID-19 pandemic and know how detrimental this all is to industries across the board, including the wedding and event industry. That being said, many vendors out there would rather work with you to reschedule rather than loose the business (and revenue) all together. So far, everyone we've heard back from on our wedding team has been happy to hear that we want to reschedule, and have been great to work with through this all.
Unfortunately our best options for new dates at our chosen venues were all the way in Spring 2021, but neither of us need to rush the marriage and are at peace with the thought of waiting another year to have our wedding the way we wanted. As much of a bummer as this all is, more than half of our vendor team had availability on our new 2021 date, and seeing that our 2020 date was so close, we were all set on any of our DIY touches like acquiring decor, making signage, etc. So basically, we are already 80% ready for our new Spring of 2021 date and won't have to do-over the majority of the 10, 8, and 6 month planning.
All in all, we are satisfied with the choices we've made over the past week in regards to our wedding. Having our family safe and healthy is what's important, and we're excited to be able to look forward to having our new, future wedding day as close to what we originally planned! For all of the March, April, and all upcoming brides & grooms out there, remember that you have the upper hand with your vendors. You are the ones paying them, and they need you to be a business. If you have to postpone and reschedule with one of your vendors into the height of wedding season or even next year, be stern and get the originally agreed-to pricing. Ask about a discount even! It's not your fault that you are cancelling or rescheduling, this is out of everyone's hands. Make them work around you, not you work around them. Everyone in the industry is feeling a hit from this, even if they are a highly sought after venue or vendor, and they need your business.
Hoping everyone with a wedding impacted can overcome.
PS: The fun thing about our new date (April 3, 2021) is that it's numerical reads as 4.3.21, so here's to the final countdown to our wedding day!
