Hi Everyone,
I know a lot of other people are in the midst of trying to decide whether or not to postpone their 2021 weddings, so I thought i'd share my decision/thought process in the hopes that it will help others.
My fiance and I have been together for 13 years (high school sweethearts!), and we got engaged in December of 2018. I was finishing my master's degree at the time and didn't want to try to plan a wedding on top of work and school, and since it felt like we had all the time in the world, we planned to get married in July of 2020. When COVID started ramping up in the spring of 2020, we made the heartbreakingly painful decision in late April to postpone a full year, to July of 2021. I am so grateful that we made our decision to postpone early, as it meant that all of our vendors were available on our new date, so we didn't lose any deposits and we didn't have to worry about finding a date that worked for all the vendors. I saw so many sad stories from couples who waited until much closer to their wedding date to decide to postpone, only to lose everything.
Now, here we are in January of 2021 and things haven't gotten much better. We are in the Los Angeles area, and current estimates are that the 65+ year old population won't even be fully vaccinated until June, and they are only the second tier of vaccinations. As such, it is unlikely that we can have the wedding of our dreams this July. I am sure we could make sacrifices like cutting down the guest list, forcing people to show proof of vaccinations, holding a ceremony without a reception, having everyone wear masks, etc., but ultimately, we decided to postpone the first time because we didn't want to give up on our dream; why give up now?
I can only imagine how sad I would be if we had a COVID-ized wedding that was less than what we've always wanted in July of this year, only to attend a friend's wedding in the early months of 2022 when everything (should...) be back to normal. It would break my heart to know that if we had just waited a little longer, we too could have had everything we wanted. I figure that since I have been with this man for literally half of my life, and I plan to spend the rest of my years by his side, I can patiently wait 365 more days to celebrate our love the way i've dreamed of doing since I was in high school.
I know that this decision will be hard and different for everyone, but I'd encourage anyone who is on the fence that waiting a little longer to not give up on your dream may be hard now, but will likely be something you're grateful for in your future. Sending lots of love and support to everyone going through this right now!
