My wedding was to be on 04/04/2020 on the island Bonaire in the Caribbean, and we just made the decision tonight to cancel/postpone. It ultimately came down to these two facts:
- I want my grandfather to be at my wedding.
- My grandfather is 95 years old and absolutely should not travel right now.
Really I just don't see any way around it. We have to cancel. The really ironic thing is that my wedding gift to my grandpa was going to be a really nice customized ice cream scooper that said "I Survived My Granddaughter's Wedding"... I originally got it because he's listened to my weekly venting about planning disasters for the past 3 months. However, it's become unfortunately literal. I still have to talk to our venues tomorrow to see if we can get our money back... Surprisingly, I think one of the things I'm most sad about missing (aside from the beautiful golden hour ceremony on a pier overlooking the ocean and our gorgeous open-air restaurant reception venue on the beach with all the pretty lights), is our cake. It was going to be prepared by a 3 Michelin-starred chef. He was going to make chocolate passionfruit bonbons shaped like starfish for our wedding favors too. They were going to come in adorable little boxes and be laid out with a wood sign that says "Make A Wish On A Starfish." I know this all probably sounds really expensive. But actually our wedding costs were going to be less than $15,000. And that included a full open bar at both the welcome dinner AND the reception. 
I won't even go into ALL the details about how hard I have worked to make this wedding happen (having to find a new reception venue and ALL my vendors with less than 3 months to go until the wedding date because the hotel manager left without warning, and finally succeeding in getting the last vendor - my florist - just a few days ago). Then my mom collapsed earlier this week, lost a ton of blood and had to go to the ER. We weren't sure if she would need major surgery or not until yesterday, when we finally found out that she had the BEST possible outcome and was okay to go home. I thought we were finally good to go, then my florist told me today there are confirmed cases of coronavirus in Aruba & Curacao (the neighboring islands) and flights have already been cancelled from Curacao to Europe and Bonaire. And of course, Florida (our layover) and Maryland (where my family lives) were both put into states of emergency several days ago...
Obviously, I am incredibly disappointed that we have to cancel. But I think it's important to keep things in perspective. My cousin's fiance actually just passed away 3 days ago from a motorcycle accident... when I think of how she's feeling right now, I can only be grateful for how lucky I am. So count your blessings, ladies. My fiance and I are both healthy, we will get married eventually and it'll be great no matter where it is. Maybe now we'll finally have that redwoods ceremony I started regretting not planning instead...
