The COVID-19 pandemic caused by Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on society worldwide. With offices, schools, shops and restaurants closed, it seems as if life itself has been put on hold. And when it is mandated by the government that there must be no gathering larger than 10 people, even the most intimate of weddings aren’t going to make the cut. While we are so fortunate to have had the wedding of our dreams in Rome last Fall, we feel for all the couples out there who are in the midst of wedding planning during COVID-19.

We spoke with our wedding planner, Cristen Faherty, of Cristen and Co., about how people should go about planning a wedding during the COVID-19 crisis. Cristen Faherty is a luxury wedding and event planner, who plans celebrations worldwide, and who herself is currently engaged. Read on to hear her thoughts on how to best manage wedding planning during COVID-19 and for more information on Cristen visit her website or check her out on Instagram. 

When should I start thinking about postponing my wedding?

It is with a heavy heart that I have to say this but, couples should be thinking about postponing right away if they have wedding dates between now and the middle/end of May because the CDC has already recommended the cancellation/postponement of weddings in the United States for at least eight weeks. 

Wedding dates in the summer between June – August can hold off postponing for now – based on current data that we have seen from other countries it looks like it takes about 2-3 months of social distancing and self-isolation before we see the number of new cases start to decrease. However, this is still relatively unknown territory! Couples should start having those difficult conversations with one another and then with their vendor team and families to create an action plan in the case of postponement. Getting ahead of the situation is the best way to be prepared. 

If your wedding is 6+ months out there is no need to worry about postponing your weddings at this time. However, with the large amount of postponements and rescheduled events already, inventory and demand on vendors is shifting and the clients who are moving to new dates in Fall 2020 and Winter 2020/21 should be quickly booking up vendors/event rentals because they have to! If you haven’t contracted/booked certain vendors or rentals at this time you may want to consider placing deposits soon for your new dates.

Even if my wedding isn’t for 6+ months, will my guests still want to come to my destination wedding?

The biggest question for destination clients that have wedding dates in the Fall/Winter has been – will my guests still be able to afford to attend my wedding or feel comfortable traveling to my wedding destination due to concerns over COVID-19? With the recent economic downturn due to the coronavirus, some couples are reconsidering their destination weddings all together because guests are bringing up concerns. I have been telling both clients and potential clients that if it is important to them to have their family and friends, i.e. the majority of their guest list, attend then it might be a good idea for them to shift their plans for something more local. Go with your gut feeling – it also might give some peace of mind to couples if they hosted their celebration locally during this time of great uncertainty.

Should I postpone my honeymoon?

Another big thing that also has to be postponed/rescheduled is the couple’s honeymoon! It’s not just changing up wedding plans, trips after the wedding have to be taken into consideration too.

We have to remember that this is a fluid situation and the information I shared above is based on my own experience with the information I have at this time (March 19, 2020) and every situation during the times of coronavirus are unique. Things are changing daily; the best advice I can give is to simply be prepared, follow the news and CDC closely, and maintain open conversations with your vendors and guests! Visit the CDC website for all current health updates and recommendations.  

What is the process for postponing a wedding?

1. Contact your wedding planner. They will be able to come up with an action plan and guide you through the whole postponement process. However, if you don’t have a wedding planner you will want to first revisit and read through all of your vendor contracts and then contact your venue coordinator/catering director to discuss next steps. If you are hosting a wedding at your home or another private estate you will want to touch base with your tent provider to discuss availability for postponement along with your catering company and individual vendors, flowers, décor, music, etc.
2. You will need to check availability of new date options that work for both you, the couple, and your key vendors. Again, if you have a wedding planner, they will be the ones coordinating this for you. As for which dates should you choose, you may want to open up your preference from your old ideal date (most likely a Saturday) to dates Thursday- Monday in the late Fall/Early Winter of 2020. And in the off chance your current wedding venue cannot accommodate an acceptable new date you will then need to dive into a new venue search right away. Think outside the box – restaurants, museums, farms, private properties, breweries/distilleries/wineries and boutique hotels, in additional to traditional venues.  
3. After reaching out to your entire vendor team (wedding planner, venue, church/ceremony location, hair/make-up, photo/video, catering, lighting, event rentals, cake designer, stationer, entertainment, transportation and any additional vendors) you will then select a new date based on the majority of your vendor team’s availability and begin securing the new date with those vendors. Should you have vendor(s) that are no longer available on your new date then you will need to confirm their cancellation policy and follow their policy procedure and ask if they have anyone that they can recommend to you. 
4. Room Blocks – if you have any room blocks set-up you will want to notify the hotel and discuss with them moving guests that have booked already to the new dates or allowing them to cancel their reservations if the dates can’t be moved. 
5. Next, I would revisit your guest list and make any adjustments needed and reach out for everyone’s email address if you don’t have it already. And also make sure you update your wedding website with any new information and details that your guests will need. 
6. Wedding Invitations – If your wedding invitations have already gone out in the mail then I would look to making a quick announcement with changes to your wedding day through Paperless Post or a similar source. If not, then you will need to touch base with your wedding stationer right away to share changes needed on your wedding invitations.
7. Rehearsal Dinner/Wedding Weekend events – Depending on the style and scope of these weekend events if you have booked a restaurant or venue for any of them and/or if you have any additional vendors booked on those dates you will want to follow the same steps as above to postpone or change them. 
8. Once you have a new date with your team fully secured with all the changes and you have made any necessary announcements then you can continue planning your wedding from this point forward. Just remember that no matter the date or time of year it will be equally as amazing as it would have been on your original wedding date. Trust your vendor team wholeheartedly! We are all here to make sure your wedding is the best day of your life! I know it is a really hard decision to make but the recommendation to postpone will be for your own sanity. You will be thankful in the end when you can have all your family and friends attend without having to worry about COVID-19. Remember, there is ALWAYS a solution to every problem! Just breathe, you got this! 

How can I ask my vendors what their disaster plans are?

Wedding vendors should have policies regarding sickness/pregnancies/unforeseen circumstances in their contracts already and if they don’t, they really should, look for that when reading through a vendor contract prior to booking. I would ask them to include verbiage of their policies into your contract if they don’t already. If they don’t and you have already booked this vendor – I would reach out directly to them asking for their policy on any sickness/unforeseen circumstances.

Remember, this could happen at any time even if it doesn’t pertain to the global pandemic going on right now. This has happened in the past for some of my clients where a band member got sick, they will simply switch that musician or singer with another member of their band or a photographer will ask a fellow photographer with a similar style of shooting to step in his/her place and the photographer you booked with edit the photos to give you the same look you ask for. Venues typically have a larger team behind them and can have an assistant to the coordinator step in or another event manager. In terms of natural disasters due to earthquakes, hurricanes/storms, etc.. Natural disasters and weather can hit us without warning like a severe thunderstorm during a tented celebration for example – and your wedding planner/venue coordinator/catering manager at that time would need to delay the celebration until the storm passes for example. Essentially, it is important to remember that unforeseen things can happen, but as long as there are procedures in place to manage them everything will be fine. 

And for this scenario in particular, the government has put out guidelines to advise event professionals on handling the effects of COVID-19, you can read them here.

How should I stay positive when so much is unknown?

I always say you can’t worry about something that hasn’t happened yet! Yes, the unknown is looming quite large right now, but keep your mind busy by focusing on all the good things in your life because I’m sure there are many!

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Here’s a list of some things you can do to stay positive: 

• Write a list of the things you are currently grateful for, either regarding your wedding or life in general.
• Read! We all have more free time these days, check out bridal magazines, wedding blogs, or even just a new book you have been dying to read.
• Start dreaming up all the design details of your wedding – that’s the fun part right?! 
• Exercise! Get outside for walks, do an in-home workout with your significant other or practice your first dance
• Learn how to meditate or practice yoga.
• Do a little online shopping for any products or items you wanted to purchase prior for your wedding that might have gone on sale now! Everyone loves a good sale!
• Come up with the signature cocktails for your wedding and have fun taste testing.
• Have a movie night or a game night with your significant other to keep your mind off wedding plans. In-home date nights are key to keeping the good vibes going while we are all stuck at home! 
• Get lots of rest; this will help with making rational decisions and staying in a positive state of mind.

Do you have any other advice for people who are in the middle of wedding planning?

I have been reminding couples the true meaning of marriage, which seems to get lost amongst all the chaos of wedding planning sometimes!  I have been asking them why they wanted to get married to begin with and the answer is always “because I love him/her and we wanted to start the next chapter of our lives together!” Remember that you are celebrating L-O-V-E and not anything else, so when you are thinking of postponing your wedding celebration remember that no matter when or where you celebrate, you are marrying the love of your life and it will be a magical day full of love, happiness and laughter no matter what! Stay focused on the things that truly matter! Be thankful to have your loved one by your side through these uncertain times, the rest will figure itself out.

Any advice for recently engaged people, who may have not begun to plan their wedding yet?

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Take it slow! If you just got engaged – congratulations! Take this time to fully celebrate your engagement! We don’t know what is going to happen in the future for our industry – holding off on any big decisions right now is probably best. Really spend the time dreaming up your big day, do your research, work on your guest list and come up with your ideal team of vendors to reach out to when the time is right. There is still plenty of time to start planning weddings in 2021.  

Do you have any creative ideas to keep the bliss going even in this crisis? 

There are so many moving parts when planning a wedding, so if you are newly engaged, here are a few fun things to kick off the process:

• Create your wedding guest list.
• Create a Pinterest board and start pinning everything you love!
• Begin your venue research, check out Instagram, wedding blogs and magazines for inspiration.
• Start your wedding website, I suggest Zola.com because you can also create your wedding registry directly through Zola without having to leave your home, which is important these days!
• Add to your wedding registry. Go through your home and determine which items to add to your wish list.
• If you are working with a wedding planner, she/he might have some fun wedding planning questionnaires for you to start filling out. 
• I mentioned it above, but it’s never too early to think about signature cocktails and taste testing them.
• Dream up your ideal honeymoon – start looking at travel magazines! Just because we can’t travel now, doesn’t mean we can’t dream!

If you enjoyed this interview with Cristen on wedding planning during COVID-19, be sure to check out our other wedding tips and tricks, in our blog posts about how we planned our wedding last fall.

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