Wedding plan is stressful, this we know, but compound that normal amount of stress with an international pandemic and hysteria everywhere you look, you may be wondering what your next move should be. Should you postpone your wedding date? Should you purchase a back-up wedding gown? Should you air-five your significant other instead of kiss them at the altar? All valid questions that we are here to help answer. COVID-19, time to get you under control. Read on for our best tips and advice if you unfortunately happen to be a #coronaviruscouple.
- Plan for a smaller guest count: On average (and without the coronavirus), about 15% of guests invited to a wedding decline while roughly 85% rsvp yes. With the virus rampant in almost every state, expect those numbers to be even higher, and a few weeks down the road, to soar. If you invited 100 guests to wedding on a date during the outbreak, expect more of a 60/40 ratio. Do not fear though … if a majority of guests are in-state or live locally and are younger than 60, your guest count shouldn’t be dramatically affected. For those states that do have those restrictions, make sure your vendors are counted as a part of your number to hit the max capacity.
- Double the lead time on purchasing your wedding gown or bridesmaids’ dresses: Top planning experts recommend doubling up on the suggested amount of lead time to order gowns before your wedding. So, if you are recently engaged, don’t wait. Instead of 8 to 12 weeks prior to the Big Day, plan for more like 16-24. As 80 percent of gowns are manufactured in China, where the outbreak started, another possibility would be to shop off-the-rack or … as a last case resort, no doubt everyone has a little black dress (LBD) in their closet. If there is a problem, there is always a solution! “Keep in mind this could also affect items your vendors are ordering, like flowers, photo albums, décor and more,” said Samie Roberts at Something Perfect.
- Subtly encourage wedding-goers to practice extra hygienic tendencies. It can’t help, right? Make sure soap is readily available in bathrooms, stock welcome bags with mini hand sanitizers, and encourage your DJ to play faster-paced songs to limit folks holding hands while dancing.
- Read the fine print of vendor contracts: Go ahead and schedule a meeting with your individual vendors (virtually, we hope) and go over worst-case scenarios—if your wedding date gets cancelled or postponed—just so you have a plan B or even plan C. We checked in with one of our vetted photography vendors, Rob + Kristen, as to what, if any, types of strategies they are implementing with couples. “If one or both of us were to become infected, we would reach out to clients getting married within 14 days of us contracting the virus to notify them and ask how they would like to proceed. We certainly wouldn't leave our clients hanging in the event that we were to contract the virus, but we respect the 14-day quarantine that the CDC recommends to prevent the spread of infection. Wedding vendors may need to rely on each other a lot in the coming weeks to fill in for other vendors if the virus were to spread rapidly among the general population,” says Kristen.
- Hire a planner: This may seem like a duh, but a planner can be your go-between amongst other vendors and alleviate added stressors both prior to and on the Big Day.
Moral of the story: There is most definitely uncertainty floating around with this virus as there is so much unknown but it’s not a time to panic, just a time to prepare! Weddings will still go on as they should. Happy planning!
Check out our Instagram for information, including a Live IG video on the topic. Need something to keep you laughing during this time? Check out our TikTok channel for some Bustld BTS.
