Many countries around the world are more than a month into confinement, and it seems that it’s having the desired effect of flattening the curve. We can be cautiously optimistic but the reality is that it will still be a little while before things are “back to normal”.

We’re still facing a lot of uncertainty, but couples who make it through confinement are coming out even stronger. And if the trend we’re seeing in China holds true for the rest of the world, 2021 is shaping up to be a particularly busy year for weddings.

We’ve shared some advice on postponing your wedding and while some couples have opted to shift their date to later in 2020 or even 2021, there are still some couples who are holding out hope that they will be able to maintain their late summer wedding as planned.

We wanted to share some additional advice on planning your wedding amidst the ongoing crisis. Our recommendations come from having 14 years of wedding planning to our credit, but since every situation is unique, only you can know the right decision for your celebration.

Holding out hope for a 2020 wedding

We completely understand if you’re holding out hope for your original 2020 date. Many countries are expecting encouraging news in May, which will give more visibility on when businesses will be able to open to the public, and when international travel will be allowed.

The advice we’re giving to couples in this situation is to set a deadline of at least 2 months out in order to give yourself (and your planner) enough time to get the rest of the planning finalized, and your guests enough time to arrange their travel.

Postponing to a 2021 wedding

If you’ve made the decision to postpone your wedding to 2021, you’ve likely already made a majority of the design and vendor decisions. Most vendors are applying deposits to the new date and are not charging change fees. However, if you’ve already set the design but decide to go in a completely new direction, there may be a cost for the extra work. Along with shoring up the new date with your previously booked venue and vendors, you’ll also want to get any other remaining vendors secured for the new date.

Planning for a 2021 wedding

The majority of our postponed weddings are being shifted to 2021, mostly into May and June. So if you have your heart set on a weekend wedding in Spring/Summer 2021, we encourage you to get the planning started as soon as possible.

The first step of planning your wedding is getting the venue and date set. With the expected swell of couples for 2021 and the current international travel restrictions, we’re encouraging couples to think a bit differently about venue search and selection. In-person visits may not be possible in the immediate term, so consider doing a virtual/video tour with your top picks to get a feel for the spaces before booking.

If planning site visits is an essential part of your wedding planning experience, this will likely push your decision date out. In order to increase your chances of booking in your preferred month we recommend considering a weekday wedding. As celebrated event designer David Beahm noted in a recent Harper’s Bazaar article, “Perhaps Wednesday weddings are going to be the new thing for a while, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Weekend, Wednesday or any other day of the week, we offer different levels of support depending on your planning needs. We would love to hear about your vision for your day and see how we can help with your plans!