Disclaimer: I debated if I should even write about this topic because I didn’t want to cause any of my brides or any couples to panic and question if they should postpone their weddings due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which is already prompting anxiety, and in many cases, a “wait and see” approach. However I felt like the elephant in the room needed to be addressed.
With Seattle being at the U.S. epicenter of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) couples planning on getting married over the next few months could be facing uncertainty about their wedding and have to think about if they should postpone or keep their wedding as scheduled. We are here to tell you not to panic and not to make any rash decisions when it comes to your wedding day.
Besides staying calm, what we are telling our couples is just to stay on top of the news and take proper steps to ensure they stay healthy. What we are doing as Seattle Wedding Planners is checking in regularly with our venues and vendors to see if they are still doing business as usual. We’ve already had conversations with our venues and asked about contingency plans if they have to close due to the outbreak and how that would impact our couple(s).
If for some reason your venue and/or vendors decides to shut down operations due to the Coronavirus and cancels on your, have a back up plan already in place so you won’t add any unwanted stress onto your plate.
We then reached out to our vendors who provide wedding insurance and they stated their policies do not cover global pandemics, so in case you haven’t purchased wedding insurance but were thinking about it, just be informed what your policy does and doesn’t cover.
If a couple is really contemplating postponing their wedding, here are some important things they should know before making the call.
Understand the full gravity of your decision. More than likely you will not receive any money back from your venue/vendors and you may still be responsible for any final balances depending on when you actually postpone your wedding. If you think about rescheduling for a later date or for next year, check with your venue/vendors to see if they will honor what monies have already been paid so far.
Let your wedding guests know ASAP if you are postponing/cancelling especially if you have guests flying in and have hotel accommodations so they can try and cancel their travel plans. We suggest calling and/or emailing your guests and posting an update on your wedding website.
Communicate with all of your vendors of your decision and plan the next course of action.
At the end of the day here is our official message: We are monitoring the situation “day by day” and advising our couples at this stage to look into their vendor contracts to assess their policies around postponement and cancellation.
