Overwhelmed, postpone or not to postpone

I think the meaning behind your potential new date is perfect!

Also, I wrote a kind of long post about why we just decided to postpone. It's here if you want to read it: https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-forums/why-were-postponing/3125cb7ca616936b.html

I'm in Massachusetts and was planning an outdoor, early August wedding. Some of our relatives complained when they heard about it at first, but they got over it. People who care about you enough to come to your wedding can tolerate being hot for 30 minutes.

Oh I am feeling for you. I just postponed from July to May 2021. The uncertainty is so stressful. We came up with the Plan B after accepting this was our current situation and started contacting all of our vendors - I swear it was the smoothest process and every last one of them are available for the new date. So, we took that as a sign that maybe it would be best for us to move to the new date and stop feeling so anxious about July. I still feel disappointed, but I can tell you that I do feel a sense a relief to have made the decision. I do worry that we made the "wrong" decision and that when our date rolls around this will have blown over, but my rational mind knows this won't be true. May 2021 may not be perfect either, but we have time to gather information and see how events are handled between now and then. Best of luck to you.

View Quoted Comment Thank you I will definitely read that!
That’s true, it’s not like they’ll be outside for too long.

View Quoted Comment This is everything that I’m feeling right now! I put off contacting all the vendors for a while, every time I thought of doing it my anxiety went through the roof so I put it off. But when i finally did it was so smooth that I worried about nothing.
I have a feeling I’ll be feeling the same way if we move it, doubting if we made the right choice.

Oh girl these decisions are so hard. I'm in New Hampshire, but grew up in New Jersey, so know Massachusetts weather pretty well. Our wedding was scheduled for May 30th and when we were looking to postpone I was really concerned that the only dates available would be in July and August of next year and was worried about the heat as well for similar reasons.

Honestly, I have the same concerns as you about September of this year from a Covid-19 perspective. The 7-7-7 of that July 2021 date just sounds perfect, plus I think moving from a Sunday to a Saturday is a huge bonus, especially if you have any guests traveling! July is the hottest time and it's likely to be considerably warmer than September (also tends to be more prone to thunderstorms) but I'd consider how long your ceremony will be, how much time you and your guests will be outside for, and if you have any vulnerable guests for whom heat could be really problematic. If you are planning a short ceremony and guests can be in shade or air conditioning for most of the rest of the time, I think that most people can "suffer through" 20 minutes of being in direct sun in the heat of July in full clothing. I also feel like if you were getting close to that date and you knew it was going to be a scorcher there are creative ways you can come up with to provide comfort to your and your guests - whether its introducing some shade via umbrellas or creative drapery on a wedding arbor or making sure there is a bottle of cold water at each seat. I'd be far more concerned about the date/climate switch if you and all of your guests were enduring an entire 6+ hour event without any reprieve from the heat, but I think as long as their are air conditioned spaces for guests to escape to and the reception is indoors it will be okay. The fact that you have a climate controlled, sheltered space available is a huge plus and makes switching from September to July less concerning, weather wise, in my opinion.

Also keep in mind New England weather is wildly erratic at best. You could have a 90 degree day in September or a 60 degree day in July. It's a bit of a gamble either way. Best of luck!

View Quoted Comment I hope it helps, and that you are comfortable with whatever decision you end up making.

View Quoted Comment I know New England weather is so crazy unpredictable it’s all over the place. As for guests being outside it would only be for the ceremony, which we’re thinking about bumping the start time back to hope it’ll cool down a bit, and then everyone can go into the air conditioned venue. So they won’t be out there for long at least and hopefully people will plan their outfits accordingly if they see it’ll be a hot one, you can still look cute and wedding appropriate and fit tho days. I’m also going to see if having a water station outside by the chairs is an option. It really is sounding better and better to switch!

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I just read your post, and what you described is exactly how I feel and what I want to avoid. At first the thought of cute masks to match everyones dresses and a nice lace one for me sounded alright, but I don't want to have to elbow bump my family to say thanks for coming, I ant to be able to give hugs and have people be able to be near each other. Your post really put light on the situation and that postponing is probably the best option.

View Quoted Comment I'm sorry we're all in this situation. I hope everything works out for you.