Covid-19 Wedding Updates

We’ve decided to keep our planned date of August 7th even if it means we have to elope. Our original plan was to have 50 but I think we’re going to bring that down to just our immediate family since I’m not confident restrictions will change. We just can’t waist to get married so even if it’s juts the two of us we will be happy 😊

We were supposed to get married in June at Lake Louise. Due to restrictions and the health/safety of our family members and ourselves, we have decided to get married in Saskatchewan where we live. We switched our date to the beginning of July and should hopefully be able to have our entire guest list by then. I have always wanted to get married in the mountains, but having our closest family there with us was more important. We decided we will take a nice honeymoon/renovate our house with the money we'll be saving this year.

We postponed our august wedding for the second time until 2022. 😢


We are going to do a garden party this summer with the wedding party and close family. Along with our dream wedding next year. Going to have our cake and eat it too!!

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25 out of 200+ is less than 12.5% of your original guest list. I say that's perfectly fine for a mini wedding.

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It's understandable that they require an additional deposit to reschedule, especially since you're supposed to pay in full if your event is supposed to be in June. Vendors want to ensure clients are taking them as serious as we want them to take us.

Are they at least honouring original pricing?

Well it looks like I am postponing my "dream" wedding as well. Originally was supposed to be on September 5th, 2020 with 200+ guests. Then postponed to June 5th, 2021 and maybe October, 2021 if that didn't work out.

Our venue has been incredibly supportive, so I'm thankful for that ♥

Fast forward to now, we are thinking of canceling the "big" wedding to next year and go ahead with a small, intimate wedding on our original date; first weekend of September. Not in the same venue, of course. I won't be wearing my "dream" dress which makes me sad, but excited at the same time for the sequel wedding...whenever that will be. We will have maybe 25 guests - is that too much for a minimony?

I feel like I've planned 3 different weddings in the past year. But we would like to get married now. We've waited close to two years. Any advice for a minimony is appreciated.

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I think venues are sort of all over the place as far as what they're doing. I've heard of lots moving dates with no additional cost, others allowing one rescheduling but after that additional costs are involved, others requiring a fee for changing the date the first time, etc.

Does your contract say anything about what happens in the event you have to cancel or reschedule? That's where I would start if you're going to try to fight the additional cost.

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Hi Christiana,

Thank you for replying! I am trying to gauge what other venues are doing in order to be the most educated. My venue is not asking for a small amount ($3k or atleast that is not small in my opinion =P). You are correct in that this would add to the initial quote given to us and in the subsequent contract (as we had rescheduled once already and gave an additional deposit at this time) it states that no further deposits will be required.

I totally sympathize that this is likely to keep them afloat and am not naive that the wedding industry has been grossly impacted by the pandemic but, I don't think that people who are rebooking should have the responsibility of ensuring they do. (sorry that was a wee vent!).

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We had to give our coordinator an additional deposit to move our reception date but it just goes toward to total price which hasn't changed. It's a pretty small amount so we didn't have any issues paying it and we're okay to lose it if we end up not needing her.

Is your venue asking for more money in total? Or will this extra deposit just contribute more to the initial price they quoted you? I think if they're not asking for more money overall it's probably just helping them stay afloat for the next year. But if it's a lot of money I totally understand you being hesitant to pay it after all that's happened with covid.

Also is there anything in your contract about requiring an additional deposit to secure a new date? Usually there will be a section about cancelling/rescheduling so whatever is in there is what they should be doing.

Hi,

I completely understand what youre going through. Our wedding was supposed to be July 9. Now with the new restrictions we are deciding to move up our date and have an elopement. We will have a " Mock wedding" Later when we can have everyone at our wedding.

Its just been too hard going back and forth trying to figure out what the right thing to do. i finally feel less stressed. still not as happy as i can be. but i think this is the right choise.

Hi everyone,

I am curious for those that have had to postpone your wedding date, how have the venues been in response to this? I am currently in a bind, I have rescheduled my wedding date from September to June this year and would like to reschedule again. My venue is requiring an additional deposit on top of what we have already put down. We are trying our best to fight this, but they seem pretty adamant that the additional deposit is necessary. Has anyone had a similar experience? What did you do in the end? Any advice would be appreciated

Also, while this is all frustrating to no end. It is nice to see such a large group of people supporting each other

We actually got married in August in a small ceremony and postponed our big celebration until this August in the hopes that things would be better. I don't see that happening either so we are going to get our married blessed in the church and have a small get together instead in our yard.


We are just at the point where we don't want to keep hoping for the best this year. I know it sounds terrible but there's so much money and time invested and we just want to enjoy our lives together now.

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I can't even imagine how hard it must be with all of the traditions and celebrations you're supposed to have at an Indian wedding. I'm sure it's been really hard on your family. I unfortunately don't have any specific advice for that, but I can tell you what we did for our small wedding.

Probably the biggest thing that made the day feel more normal for us was to wear our outfits as planned and go all out with photos. We still did a first look and we took a lot of photos with our photographer before the ceremony. We also decorated our apartment and got our photographer to take photos of all of that. It was like having a smaller version of venue photographs.

We streamed the ceremony for my family members that couldn't attend and my husband's immediate family was able to be there in person. We also took distanced family photos with his family after the ceremony.

We were going to skip favours, but since our wedding was so small, we decided to buy some personalized pint glasses and I made cupcakes for our guests. We packaged up everything nicely and made simple custom thank you cards to go inside. It was a nice way to thank those closest to us for attending/virtually attending our wedding and it's a keepsake for us.

For our "reception" we bought some nice cheese and crackers and did a little cocktail hour over zoom with my family. We ordered food from Vij's which is one of our favourite restaurants and I made a wedding cake. After dinner we did a virtual cake cutting with both of our families over zoom and then we did a post-dinner zoom call with my husband's family. It was nice to have everyone together for a short time, but to keep the zoom more manageable, breaking it into smaller pieces worked a lot better.

We also made a custom playlist for us to listen to while we were eating dinner so it didn't just feel like we were having a fancy dinner at home.

I'm sure there are other traditions you could do over zoom. It takes a bit of creativity and flexibility but I'm sure whatever you end up doing will be great!

It is also possible that restrictions will change before your wedding. Because it's hard to say what will happen, having a few different plans ready to go is important. You should think of what you'd want to do if the restrictions stay the same, and then have 1 or 2 backup plans if the limit increases or if receptions are allowed again. Having everything planned out multiple times does take more work, but it helps reduce stress so much when things keep changing at the last minute.

View quoted message Ty Christiana for the kind words. I would love some advice on how to move forward with planning. Family drama has also been a hinderance to my wedding planning. It seems more harder as Indian weddings are a week long.

Got engaged in June 2020. Set our date for May 22, 2021 and we’re sticking to it no matter what! It’s looking like it’s going to be 10 people (so just our parents) but that’s alright. We just want to be married. So we cancelled our venue and we’re having a backyard wedding. The only reason we were keeping the venue before is because we could have more people at a venue rather than a backyard. But Ford keeps us on our toes!

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I'm so sorry Kir

We were in a similar position. Got engaged December 2019 and planned a 100 person wedding for November 2020. We ended up having a 10 person ceremony in November and we're going to have a reception after restrictions are lifted.

I know it isn't what you planned, but even if you're limited to a 10 person ceremony you can still make it feel special and memorable for you and your family. A lot of us on here had tiny covid weddings this year and last year so if you want some ideas let us know

Hello! I’m from B.C. and got engaged Feb 2020 after dating for 11 years. As soon as the ball started rolling regarding planning, covid hit. Since it was supposed to be an Indian wedding, my fiancé and I had a 200 pp guest list. We were planning for Oct 2020, then pushed it to Jan 2021. Now we’ve finalized on June 2021. The issues were facing is the 10 people guest list with no reception. My brother and his family r in the US, so I’m not sure if they will be able to make it 💔. I’m at a loss because I’ve already made a deposit for my reception venue and bridal dressing. I don’t want to postpone my wedding again and do a anniversary celebration because I want to start family planning. I’m just really heart broken, I’ve imagined this day for so long only to have my dreams shattered. One positive thing that has come out of this pandemic is the size of my wedding. I was fine with the 50 person guest list but now the people who r near and dear to me can’t come..

Hi Angie,

Your message only proves my point. I can't stand by and let people spread this kind of misinformation during a pandemic. I'll be reporting your comments.

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I'm sorry that I inserted myself in this conversation, but us featured users are here to monitor and help everyone in this community.

Hi Angie, I know this is a difficult times for everyone but this isn't the place for negativity towards other people.

View quoted message Hi Angie, I know how frustrating the restrictions are and we’re all tired, but please don’t spread conspiracy theories about government agendas and COVID. It doesn’t help anyone and instead it creates mistrust and will prolong the pandemic.
Ontario specifically (but a few other provinces too) is in a really horrible position and unfortunately the alternative to really strict measures is letting hundreds or possibly thousands of people die when it could have been prevented.
Please just hold on a bit longer ❤️

This is getting beyond stupid at this point. Dont even get me started.

Just go through with your wedding and dont want for this to end because its clear they have another agenda they are not finished with yet- I've also heard from 3 different sources at this point that on May 20th things are going to get more strict, not less.

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I am over this Covid-19 Crap!!! MY wedding is 30 invited, my wedding party is 4 brides maids 4 groomsmen 4 flower girls 2 ring bearers and one usher, I have waited 16 years to marry my man, our engagement was a year ago and we planned this year because of covid, now in Alberta its 10 people max, I am having my wedding, everyone in my wedding party is from the same household, so if it comes down to it, my invited guests will be on video chat, my wedding it outdoors so I will not sacrifice my ceremony, when we are all together everyday anyway! we are not allowed to have a reception, was planning on having one on our first anniversary, so I hope others are going to follow, there were 10 now 10 (100+people) Wedding In a neighbouring town, and nobody stopped them, I am almost ready to Pay the Fine and have wedding as planned

My Fiancé & I moved our wedding from August 2020 to May 2021, after more & more disappointing news of lockdowns. Since were we’re not prepared to postpone any further. We found a venue that accommodates micro weddings and we’re having our ceremony within the provincial guidelines and a small intimate dinner at our home afterwards.
Unfortunately the pandemic has found a way to control our lives and this is our way of not letting it take control of our special day.

View quoted message I prefer early summer to late summer for weddings and we want to start our family sooner.

Just curious, what prompted you to move the date up by two months instead of just having your reduced ceremony and lunch in September?

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We're pretty much in the same boat as you, just two weeks earlier than your planned date. We've already moved our date once so we're not moving it again. Any make up event will be that, rather than a postponed wedding.

We postponed ours to next year! We planned 25 people family-only small wedding but given constant lockdowns and case numbers climbing up it just would not feel right putting our families at a risk. Hopefully next year will be better and we could share our special moment with families and enjoy our cozy relaxed ceremony and delicious food

Hah, we will hope

View quoted message This sounds exactly like mine! Haha I love that women are still excited about the intimate ceremonies as they would be a big one! We did a walk through of ours on Saturday to and just can't wait!

We’re October 23 and I’ve never been so anxious after seeing albertas case numbers rise and rise I am hoping for the best but making a final decision in July !