Cancelling? Sticking it out?

My partner and I are getting married in Sept 2021 regardless of what is going on with COVID. Whether that means our small celebration of 50 people is able to happen, or we have a private backyard ceremony with 10 people and postpone the reception until later on - we just want to be married. The party following the marriage is fun, but what's most important is that you celebrate your love together, and honestly it might be nice to just have that small, personal moment and then celebrate with an anniversary party later? Either way it happens, it'll be your wedding and it'll be a day full of love. With or without the big gathering.

We've been booking every vendor only after they've explained what will happen if COVID restrictions force us to postpone the reception, and we've found that so far, as long as the cancelling is forced on us (like the province says no gatherings over X# of people, and our venue is closed - NOT if we decide we're not comfortable and cancel ourselves), they'll happily change the date of our event on the contract.

To answer your question, we're just going ahead assuming the wedding will happen with 50 people in September and hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst!

View quoted message Definitely! When it comes down to it it's about you and your partner, the love you have for each other and coming together into a new little family. It's about you two starting a new chapter. It's just about being together even if not everyone can make it. Everyone there in person or not will still be happy for the two of you.


Big bridal and all the movies puts so much pressure on a Pinterest perfect day. There's all this emphasis on making it a grand production to wow guests and what's your brand and what's unique to make it stand out so your wedding can be a source of pride - all just to sell more to us, and from the sounds of it these bigger things just end up being a whirlwind to the couple. It's understandable to be disappointed after planning or looking forward to your original vision for so long but there are definite upsides to having something smaller and more intimate, youre still allowed to enjoy your day no matter what the final plan ends up being because it's still going to be your big day.

One of the fortunate things with getting engaged right before the 2020 March lockdown was we didn't get the chance to book or commit to anything right away. Visiting venues in the summer afforded being able to discuss booking in a more flexible manner.


We started booking this fall and winter after seeing how 2020 played out. We switched from the original plan of classic ceremony and reception 70-80 guests down to a more intimate outside affair inviting 35-40 (expecting 30-32). Obviously this year could still yet again be different but basing it off of what things were allowed up to during summer 2020 would make it a little easier to postpone or cancel with a smaller affair then what we originally planned.

I'm mentally exhausted...we were supposed to get married in Osoyoos, BC August 1st, 2020, then postponed to May 29th, 2021. I feel selfish that I want this day so badly but will most likely end up with a backyard covid 10 ceremony because travel within BC is restricted and our family's property is in Osoyoos. We are in the mainland. Postponing another year for me is just too much since I've been planning everything on my own here as well. Backyard ceremony can be just as meaningful too right Id also like my bedroom back cause its full of decor i bought over a year ago, lol

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I'm Osoyoos as well, but we are from the mainland and travel restrictions are killing me as ours in on family property I hope they change.

I'm waiting another month or two to figure out if we are postponing or not. If we do postpone we plan to have an intimate ceremony with parents/siblings/grandparents (if we are able to)... this will be on the venues outdoor space we have already booked.


Luckily our venue provides everything except table decor. But Im still dreading to contact them soon and figure out what we're doing.The way I see it, we have the venue, we have the photographer and we have the officiant booked... so we likely won't loose the deposit, but we may have to alter the contracts, is thats even possible hahah ughhhh....

Hi, It is so crazy and an added concern when already wedding planning. We started planning last June 2020, for our Wedding this June 2021. I have 5 big vendors booked, but due to Covid, I made sure that If I had to postpone or cancel it was written in the agreement. We made the difficult decision this week to postpone from June 2021 to June 2022, and all of our Vendors had the date available and easily the change. It is SO hard, because you just never know what is going to happen. I am emotional about our change, but we want things like dancing, pre-wedding events and more. If there are still restrictions, for us it wont make it what we want it to be.

Find out more from the vendors you want, and see what they can add to the contract before you send over that deposit!

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I am with you ladies with that too. My mental health cant take that either, changes happen here by the hour which makes it very hard to plan a wedding, praying things do turn around for 2022

We are September 18,2021 and I am in Manitoba. We are going ahead with our wedding as if everything is going to be OK. If anything, we are ok with dropping from 120 guests down to 50-75. We checked the vaccine calculator from the government and it says fall is going to be when 70% of people should be vaccinated so it made us feel safe to go ahead and resume our planning.

We are moving forward with our plans. Wedding is this coming June. We have paid all our deposits, but I did check with the vendors beforehand, to make sure dates were changeable, or deposits were refundable if needed. Only 1 vendor (florist) has a non-refundable deposit policy, but will move the date as long as she is given 30+ days notice.. I wasn't super pleased with that, but love her work, and her deposit was only $100. So it wouldn't be a huge loss if it came to that.

Sticking to the date seems right if the deposit has been paid and for vendors too. Its not worth losing the money for cancellation as we almost did for 3 vendors and the venue itself. Times of restrictions seem to take more and more these days to think the day isn't getting there sooner.

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Those are all very valid points!! Especially wanting your sister there of course (I hope she's safe and well!). Those are similar feelings that I am having. We decided back in April 2020, to postpone our August reception, and I just can't imagine things being back to "normal" by the summer this year. And if they are, I think we wouldn't find out until like a month before, and therefore would be stressing from now until then about whether or not things were going to happen the way we hoped. My mental health can't take that I don't think. I think my only hesitation is that we're technically already married now, and will people think we're crazy for wanting to pay thousands of dollars to celebrate 2 years later. I keep going back and forth, but I think I really do want the actual wedding.

View quoted message For me personally, I can't go from living my life indoors to suddenly this big party, I wouldnt enjoy it and would be completely anxious on-top of bride-anxious. I still have a lot to do (vendors, dress alterations, bridestuff) and I want to enjoy that process as well. We are in lockdown now, almost a year after this started, even more worse a situation than ever, I wasn't optimistic that it would be settled this year. I didn't want to put my family at risk. My sister's a nurse in New York and I really want her there, I feel there's a better chance she'll be able to make it, I'll be able to save more money, there's so many to list lol

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I'm sorry you've had to postpone a second time . This last year has been so stressful for couples trying to get married! We had a small ceremony (no reception) on our original date this past August, postponed the reception to August 2021. I originally thought I wouldn't want to postpone again and would just accept the fact that I didn't get to have a full wedding...but the last few days have started to change my tune, and now we're seriously considering postponing to August 2022 for the reception. What made you pull the trigger to postpone to 2022 already?

9 months is a long time in this pandemic. Things change so quickly. I would not be freaking out yet but definitely be checking with your vendors on what happens if you cannot have your wedding due to covid before you book. That being said, if you're looking for specific vendors - I'd be booking. We were 10 days out from our wedding (NYE) and had to postpone due to our province going into lockdown in anticipation of idiots not following rules for the holidays - this doesn't help, I know, but we didn't expect it and you cannot predict anything (maybe a bit by looking at what September was like for you last year). You really never know! We still go married but postponed the wedding until March. Our vendors are AMAZING and our officiant even did a short and sweet legal ceremony for us without charging extra. As predicted, things are bad here (not specifically where we are getting married but the province in general) but we are choosing to not freak out - the lockdown could mean we will be better off for March AND 2 months is enough time for things to change (for the better 🤞). We will be happy with 50 people as we are totally done with this stress (and happy to save the 25k). Not sure I helped at all but if you are able to wait it out, I'd definitely say wait it out (this coming from a bride who did and then got screwed. I'd take it over postponing and finding out I didn't have to... And the having to postpone the new date 🤷🏻‍♀️).

We’re proceeding with ours in August this year. Only 25% deposits paid out until Feb, then another 25% goes down for the venue and florist.


I’m very particular about the details so I wanted to get my preferred vendors. Plus, if you think about it, small deposits during lockdown can help many of these small businesses actually survive. Our photographer for instance does this full time and he has 3 kids to feed. I gave him $300 to secure our date.
If you’re worried about deposits, get wedding insurance. Also read the fine print and if there’s no lenience for Covid changing your date, request it to be in your contract.
Best of luck to you! ♥️

Same boat as you but arguably worse since we're in Ontario (Toronto specifically). It'll be a September wedding and we're sticking it out no matter what, even if it means ceremony only with the essential five people and no reception. Worst case scenario, we have an anniversary reception but it's pretty much a "life needs to move on" scenario. The only thing that can stop us is if the government bans weddings like they did last March when everyone stopped issuing marriage licenses, or how the regional government in Peel banned all in-person wedding celebrations.

As for vendors, we're not bringing anyone else on board until July when we have a better picture of things. It'll be a tad last minute but I'm not committing to any contracts or giving up any funds in such an uncertain time.

We're going ahead with our July 9, 2021 wedding in Osoyoos. We are hopeful that we'll be allowed to have 50 guests by then. Contracts are signed and deposits have been paid. Fingers are crossed that things get better 🙂

We were supposed to be sept 2020, we changed it to sept 2021 back in april. Today, I just changed it a third time to 2022. Its frustrating but it's scary right now

We are waiting. Venders aren't too busy based on my calls and research. It does mean you may need to change your initial choice buuuut then you're not out all the deposits.


We also narrowed to 30 guests who got invites and the other 30 we wanted know they are on 'standby' if the restrictions allow for more than 30 in my area. We didn't want to cancel people or uninvite so we went that route. People have been great and have kept the day open and are waiting to hear closer to.

100% feeling the same worries that you are! My wedding is in May, and I would be perfectly happy with 50 people.

In the meantime, we have been booking and planning everything as normal and will just have to wait and see what happens. Most vendors that I have been in touch with have been quite understanding with the deposits, between either moving them to a new date or refunding if necessary.

I think that we will be getting married no matter what, but it would be much better with 45 than 10 people.

My fiance and I are going ahead with our August 7 2021 wedding as of right now in Kelowna. We already postponed our first date August 8 2020 back in May and don't really want to postpone again. The only way that we'd postpone again is if gathering sizes don't increase for then 10. We're waiting until maybe the end of March early April or even May before we make a final decision about the wedding.

But I would maybe still book if you're wanting certain vendors for your big day. My fiance and I booked all of our vendors a year and a half before our first wedding. Dates fill up fast. Most vendors are very accommodating right now with covid since we all have never dealt with something like this before. All of of deposits are just switched to the new date and if we have to switch again, they will all do the same for our new date with the deposits as well. We've already put in over $9000 and I would hate to lose all of that just because vendors don't want to help us have the wedding that we want even if we have to wait another year or two.