What to Do If You Had to Postpone Your Westchester Wedding

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What to do if you’ve been forced to hold off on your big day due to COVID-19.

Nothing can stop true love. Wedding dates, unfortunately, can get held up. We talked with Westchester-based wedding planner Yvonne Unubun of Events by Mayven to get her four most important tips for couples who’ve had to send out some “Don’t Save the Date” cards.

1. Had to Move Your Wedding Date? You Can Still Celebrate It!

Just because you had to postpone, reschedule, or even cancel your wedding doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate on that original date. You still can — and should — without breaking the bank! Here are some simple, but romantic ideas to consider:

  • If your wedding venue offers catering delivery or pick-up service, order your wedding menu and have a nice dinner with your favorite bottle of wine. Feel free to recycle the bottle as a keepsake, by each dropping in a love note to be read at a future date — one year anniversary maybe!
  • Looking to capture the day in photos? Schedule a mini-shoot session with your wedding photographer (while social-distancing of course!), if you had already booked one. If you didn’t have one booked, use this as a trial-run for a photographer who you want to capture your big day. Aside from your wedding planner or day-of coordinator, your photographer is one of the vendors who you typically spend the most time with on your wedding day; use this opportunity to see if you love their energy and there’s genuine chemistry, and most of all if you like how they have captured your best angles.

2. Communicate With Your Guests

Save the dates are out, “Change the Dates” are in! In my latest Youtube video, I share tips for couples who are in the process of rescheduling or postponing their wedding to consider. One of my top recommendations is to proactively communicate with your guests to avoid receiving hundreds of messages and calls asking ‘What’s going on?’ and if the wedding is still happening — this can be overwhelming. 

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  • Once you’re all set on a new wedding date you can let your guests know by updating your wedding website with the new information.
  • If it’s not going to be a burden to your wedding budget, you can send your guests a change the date notice in the form of a card, or a cool souvenir. You can be as creative with the design as you want! Minted and Etsy have lots of cool options, but also check with your local vendors and support them during this time.

 

3. Wedding Planning Is NOT Canceled

Take advantage of deals, discount price offerings, and negotiate. Your wedding date might have been postponed, but it doesn’t mean you can’t keep planning. 

  • Now is a good time to shop around for those items that you might not have checked off your list prior to COVID-19. Some vendors are offering promotional discounts or attractive package deals, and are generally more open to negotiations, which can be helpful in adding that one thing you might have wanted but which maybe was a little bit out of budget before. 
  • If it’s an item that requires custom production and you want your wedding date added but at the time of booking you’re not 100% sure about your new date just yet, ask the vendor if you can pay for the item now to get the discounted rate but wait until you have your wedding date confirmed to have the item produced.

4. Make Memories While Checking off Your Wedding To-Do List

Now that you’ve been given more time, take advantage of it and make it fun for you and your fiancé! The wedding planning process can be a stressful time for couples, with one partner (usually the bride) sometimes feeling overwhelmed with the pressures of so much to do in so little time — all while juggling work, school and other priorities. 

  • Instead of constantly discussing the wedding tasks throughout the day with your fiancé — which can sometimes become annoying — schedule a certain time of day or the week during which you discuss all things wedding: things like updates on any assigned tasks you both have, reviewing vendor proposals and contracts, making decisions, etc. 
  • Make your wedding tasks fun. Instead of asking your fiancé a hundred times what song(s) they want for first dance songs, make it a date: Listen to your favorite songs together over a bottle of wine and some snacks, and see which song speaks to both of you deeply as you slow dance in your living room.
  • Lastly, I always encourage couples to take marriage counseling classes and work schedules sometimes make it difficult to coordinate. Now that most of us are still sheltering in place, get that counseling class scheduled via Zoom, Skype, Facetime, or whichever video platform works.

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