My Wedding Planning during COVID-19– Managing the Risks

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live, work, enjoy leisure, and socialise. Many times, my interstate plans had to be cancelled. It seemed that even planning for a simple, short destination holiday was almost impossible due to the uncertainties.

Early last year I got engaged and we just had our wedding in December 2021 (pop the champagne!). The reason I am writing this is to share some valuable lessons we learned when planning for our special day during this unprecedented time. If arranging a simple road trip was hard, one could only imagine how challenging it was to plan a wedding. We had friends who had to reschedule their wedding 3-4 times since March 2019 due to snap lockdown in Victoria, and honestly we were so worried!

Rewinding to the moment post our engagement, we discussed and decided to take the risks and plan our wedding day in 10 months time. When we decided, honestly Victoria was quite in a good position COVID-19 wise. However, we were unsure if our family could come from overseas to celebrate the special day because the probability of government imposed travel restrictions were high.

I am not here to tell how we reached to the decision and started planning (because honestly it just happened), but I would like to share how we exercised some controls to manage the undesirable possibilities of postponing/cancelling our wedding. Please note in mind that a wedding can be cancelled due to so many unexpected reasons, so the below may apply for non pandemic cancellation too!

1. Set a maximum loss you can accept if the wedding has to be rescheduled/cancelled

This is the most important first step for us. The question is : how much are we willing to sacrifice (monetarily) if we have to reschedule or cancel our wedding? Despite the many wedding suppliers in the market who have flexible cancellation policies, I am sure there is at least one vendor you really love and coincidentally, has strict cancellation policy (I do!). The idea of setting a maximum loss budget is so you know how much you are willing to lose if your first-attempt wedding had to be cancelled. Make sure both of you are comfortable with the figure and have enough left for the 2nd or even 3rd attempt. Only then, decide which vendors to book and if you have enough in the bank to secure that one special supplier you really love.

2. Ask vendor’s cancellation & COVID policies

This may sound stupid, but a few times we almost forgot to ask this question especially to our small/medium-sized suppliers. This is a must-ask question when engaging with your vendors. Knowing the terms and conditions when you need to reschedule / cancel / postpone are pivotal. We always asked the policies for COVID-19 and non COVID-19 related cancellations. As we looked for options, we compared and chose vendors who had flexible terms. Most importantly, add the non-refundable amount in the budget list.

3. Find vendors who are on the same state/area as your wedding location

This reduces the travel restrictions risks from government, whether international/interstate border closure or distance restrictions. If all your vendors are on the same region/state, it will give you an extra peace of mind. We always ask ourselves these questions : is it worth taking the risks? Will my decision to choose this vendor heavily occupied my mind from now to the wedding day? If the answer is a big yes, then I will recommend to reconsider. There are thousands of wedding businesses across states, I am sure you can find one you love in your area. It was too late for us when we realised we booked one from another state, and we were busy keeping an eye on the news throughout the time leading up to the day.

4. Compromise, compromise, compromise

There were some things we had to sacrifice in order for the plan to work. This is highly related to the first suggestion, we made sure what was chosen fitted the ‘sacrifice budget’. If no, find other solutions. In my case, we found out that the majority of florists do not offer refunds within 10 days of the wedding day. I am a forever fresh flower lover, but I have to sacrifice and go for a mix of faux and fresh bunches for the decoration. The total of non-refundable cost for full fresh flowers exceeded our agreed limit if the wedding had to be cancelled. If we didn’t compromise, most probably there will be no decoration in our 2nd or 3rd attempts if the first wedding had to (be) reschedule. Good news is, the faux flowers turned out to be just as beautiful as the fresh ones!

5. Research ‘live stream’ options in case your family/friends can’t attend

Our big family and friends live overseas, so it was very unfortunate that some of them could not attend. They convinced us to go ahead with the wedding because no one knew when this pandemic would end. In exchange, we organise a live stream of our holy matrimony, so they could attend virtually. If all your family is in the same country, but different states, I would suggest to keep a few options in mind in case a last minute live-stream is needed.

6. Cut down party size or have a more compact run down

This is probably the hardest, and not the crowd favourite suggestion for all everyone. Some people had a dream wedding with large party size and back to back order of event. We decided to keep our guest list small, so if there were any limit to the number of people who can attend a wedding, we wouldn’t need to un-invite many guests. We also kept our party simple, we chose the key events we both enjoyed to do rather than just to follow the traditions.

We definitely considered ourselves blessed and lucky. It’s beyond our imagination that our parents could attend (with last minute visa lodgement as the international rules were relaxed), moreover to be able to go ahead with the original date and have a virus safe wedding during this time. I hope the tips above can help your planning as they have greatly helped us!