How COVID-19 Has Impacted The Weddings Of These 2020 Brides

Is this you? Suddenly what was shaping up to be your best year with your dream wedding on the books is now looking much less amazing and even questionable if it will actually happen. In a time of uncertainty it’s tough to know what will happen day-to-day and if you need to postpone your wedding or try to move it later in the year (at this point we are seriously recommending considering 2021 as an option to consider). We talked to the experts about COVID-19 and what to expect for your wedding day, but we also wanted to talk to you, our readers, to hear, what you are experiencing. Here, three 2020 brides share what they have been dealing with in the past few days.

Sarah Manson Wedding Date: May 3rd, 2020 (moved now to August 30th, 2020) “I have always dreamed of a destination wedding, so when Jeff proposed in November 2018 we began to plan our dream wedding in Las Vegas. We went visited in April 2019 and booked everything on that trip for May 3, 2020. We had no idea waiting a whole year would result in us having to scramble to change all of our wedding plans one month out. The sad part is that this not only impacts us, but our 40 guests as well who took the time off work and spent a lot of money to come and celebrate with us. When COVID-19 first came to light in January we started getting a little concerned, but it seemed like the governments had a handle on it and it was localized in a couple of countries. Like most people at the time, we had no idea in four weeks in would become a global pandemic. It hit us hard the week of March 9th when announcements were made regarding school closures and travel bans. We had our first couple guests email us to let us know they were dropping out so it became a very emotional time with everything hitting us at once. From there, things moved very quickly for us over the next week in terms of putting emotions aside and making the best decisions for us and our guests. We rescheduled our entire wedding until August 30th, still in Las Vegas. We notified all of our guests of the change and shared our deepest apologies with them for the inconvenience. They have all been extremely supportive, as have all of our vendors based in Las Vegas. The vendors have all allowed us to move our deposits to another date of our choosing with no push back or issues. The Wynn is where we are hosting our wedding ceremony and it has allowed us to keep our ceremony date on a Sunday, even though they stopped holding Sunday weddings over a year ago. We have found in the whole switch up our biggest stressors have been related to our guests. I had reached out to all of our Las Vegas vendors weeks ago to ask if things started to get worse would we be able to move our date without losing payment. They all assured me there would be no issues, so that stress was quickly eliminated. In terms of our guests, us making the decision to move our wedding would require them to re-book all of their travel, get new vacation time off work, all while not being 100% sure COVID-19 will be resolved by August. Also, with the airlines being swamped with calls and emails I knew it would not be any easy experience for those who wanted to change to be able to. The stress was far more about ensuring our guests were not overly inconvenienced or out any additional money vs. being stressed about our personal situation. At the end of the day we can get married anywhere, so we will make it work.”

Carly Ostroff Wedding Date: August 16th, 2020 “At this point we have acknowledged the fact that we might have to reschedule our date, but right now it feels too premature to take action. We're still five months out, so we're staying hopeful. Obviously, a lot can happen between now and then. We've talked to everyone we're working with. It's a tough time for all of us, and everyone has been as accommodating as possible. We've added in COVID-19 clauses to any contracts we're signing now. My planner has recommended that for now, we just hold tight and see what happens. Our wedding is in Toronto at the King Edward Hotel and they've been super flexible about if and when we need to move our date. As far as our planning goes, we are pretty far in as we started planning as soon as we were engaged in November. Our planner, venue, band, photographer and videographer are confirmed. My dress is being made by Lee Petra Grebenau in Israel. We recently took meetings for invites and decor too. Ideally, if we have to push it, I wouldn’t want to do it too far out. I'm thinking September would be great if it's an option. Right now, our wedding is on a Sunday, but I would be open to doing something like a Thursday night to make it work if we have to reschedule. The tricky part is that at least for right now, nobody knows when it will be safe to rebook. As of today, we don’t have a firm date to make the decision but for now we are looking at June for reassessment. I believe it would give us enough time to reschedule everything and we'll also have a better idea of when might be best to go forward.”

 Tara Leydon Wedding Date: October 9th, 2020 “Cale my fiancé and I have know for a long time that we wanted to have our wedding in Palm Springs; we have visited there many times and it has become a really special place for us. The wedding planning was relatively quick and seamless. Our wedding is in October and I already had everything booked and deposits paid. The reason our wedding is impacted by COVID-19 is our wedding is planned for the newly announced date for Coachella. The hotel we booked and have paid for, for our guests to stay at (25 rooms) as well as host a welcome cocktail party on the Thursday and a lunch and pool party on the Saturday, basically came back to us and said that they had originally had a hotel buyout with a large prestige shoe brand for the first weekend of Coachella (when Coachella was supposed to be in April). They asked if we would move to another hotel. They have offered us a lesser hotel with basically no compensation. It’s become a huge mess and the event planner we had been dealing with at the property has become extremely rude to us as if it’s our fault we booked at their hotel. It has being really upsetting for us and if we do stay at this hotel we just feel awkward about it and feel like they would do a bad job, but if we decide to leave there are really not many choices as most hotels in the area have been bought up for weddings months ago. We’d really have to think about cancelling everything. We don’t have a wedding planner, I’ve been planning everything myself which as up until very recently had been perfectly fine. We have written the hotel an email explaining our side and how upsetting this has all been and how unprofessional this has all been handled. We basically feel like we’re being kicked out of their hotel, ultimately so that they can make more money by hosting a corporate event. The stress of what was supposed to be a happy occasion to now a really awkward and upsetting time. The hotel has been difficult and frustrating to deal with and our discussions are still ongoing."