Elope and then reception later?

This is what we’re doing! getting married 06/06/2020 and have postponed our reception to 10/10/2020

Hi everyone! I'm in a similar boat, my wedding is July 11, 2020 and it was going to be ~275 people. We have now decided to get married that day with a small group, hopefully us, our immediate family and wedding party can be there but we will follow whatever restrictions are in place for Saskatchewan. We have been together almost 8 years, engaged for 1.5 of them and we still want the big party so we will be having a large reception July 10, 2021 with everything from vow renewals to cake cutting and the big dance. Its such a crazy time right now and it is so comforting knowing there are other people dealing with the same issues.

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Thank you drear Jade!

I think it’s a good plan! Our date is June 5th and we’re still waiting to make a call until I’m finished with this semester of school.


But... our back up plan as of now is to still elope (with a super small group, just our pastor and a couple witnesses) and then do EVERYTHING as planned whenever this blows over. I’m not sure if it’s strange at all but we’d still even have our ceremony and reception and just change the wording of the ceremony to not say we’re getting married but to say we’re still wanting our friends and family to be apart of our promises to each other and celebrate with us.
If we have to reschedule, we’re hoping to have a new dream and not have to lose much of the plans we worked so hard on for a year.

Yes! I’m on this too! Getting married this June 27 still whatever happens but planning to have the celebration/reception the next year.

Our wedding is planned for October, and we are waiting until July to make a decision. Our biggest worry is that his parents won't be able to enter Canada from the states and it doesn't seem fair to carry on without them.


I'm actually loving the idea of eloping, and having our "reception" next year as an anniversary party. Our plans have always been for a smaller celebration so we're ok with having the essential people like witnesses, officiant, and photographer. Honestly I think my fiance is relieved!
Planning a few backup plans has reenergized my wedding planning bug. I've started to think about who could do my hair and makeup if places are still closed, and about how cool our photos could be in our deserted city centre.

This is officially what were doing! eloping on our original date of 06/06/2020 and our reception 10/10/2020

In ontario we cant have gatherings of more than 5 people so if we have to postpone we have to pick another date. im hoping it wont come to this im so upset!! we spent so much time and money planning this im so upset!!!

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Our photographer agreed to stick around and take pictures of just the two of us in our backyard for a bit. I ordered a cake from our favourite bakery that's still offering takeout/pickup orders, so we'll eat cake and drink some margaritas. We'll likely facetime or zoom our family in our wedding outfits (he has a huge extended family so that will take some time). We're going to order takeout for dinner from our favourite local restaurant. Then a group of our friends organized a zoom call for everyone to participate in, so we'll drink and chat in the evening.

View quoted message I’m not really sure! I want pictures after the ceremony with our parents and of just us, and then possibly a dinner if our venue would let us have a small gathering. It’s hard to think of things to fill up a whole day!

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What are you planning on doing after your ceremony! I'm trying to figure out how to still make the full day feel special.

That's what we're doing! Go for it if you want to get married. It will make you a lot less anxious to have a back up plan list this. We're eloping this Saturday

We are doing a similar thing. We hope to be able to keep our May 23 date, get married with just parents and officiant, then have the big wedding and reception later. The second wedding is essentially a "vow-renewal" I guess since we hope to be already married. But hey, lots of people have 2 or more weddings, often I've heard of couples that have a wedding for the bride's culture, then a second one for the groom's culture. We'll just be having a small wedding, then a wedding that includes family and friends. Sadly I don't have alterations done on my dress, so I plan to wear my super cute rehearsal dinner white dress as the first, small ceremony dress. Not ideal, but hey, I never thought I'd be the type to have 2 dresses and yet, here we are! Two dresses, two weddings, (two wedding nights *wink wink*). It'll all work out, no matter what we are determined to get married!

This is exactly what we’re planning on doing! “eloping” on 6/6, then most likely postponing the reception. we haven’t made the final decision, but this is what it’s looking like

With all the craziness going on we are also ooking into postponing our reception, but keeping the ceremony with just our parents and siblings type deal.
We have 400 people expected at the reception and I don't forsee that being doable even if it does end up returning to normal soon because of the risk of the virus returning over the next 18-24 months and gatherings that big are strongly not recommended.
We have found that most vendors would rather reschedule to next year than to cancel and loose business entirely. This has been a real blessing as we might be able to keep everything and just change the year on our reception. We can still do photos of the wedding party, and families, and you're totally right about getting to wear the dress twice! Plus, it gives the speakers some extra time to come up with their speaches

Hey there, our wedding is August 1st. We were supposed to have a 230 person wedding with a 120 person henna party the day before. We are cutting it down to 9 people, just our immediate family on the same date at my moms house, which we originally wanted to do but our guest count wouldn’t allow. We will have a party next year with the 230 people (or less) but will not be doing the whole shebang. We are thinking of having a party, being introduced as the mr. and Mrs., first dances, cake cutting etc. We haven’t thought much about it but that’s our initial plan.

We did this - got legally married in February, and wedding celebration is in August. We originally planned on getting married in August like normal, but we decided we wanted to get married sooner. We didn't dress up or do anything for the legal wedding, but I'm happy we are getting the paperwork and name change over with now. My biggest worry is our little secret getting out as friends and most of our family don't know 😬

Eloping and partying later is a very clever idea for the people who may need it. I will suggest that to my friends who may need to cancel.

View quoted message I would wait until May like you said to decide for your wedding! This can’t last forever and I think the borders will have to relax restrictions because countries can’t go on that long without trade or tourism. Good luck with your wedding! I hope we both get to have the day we dreamed of!

My wedding should be on 24.06.2020. In Monteral. And if our guests would be people only from Canada, it would be more chance to have our wedding, since my family will need to fly from Latvia, ( where corona so far is under control ) , but boarders are closed, there is big chance that we could cancel wedding. I will wait till beginning of May and then will see and start to talk slowly with my vendors. I am just hoping for miracle! I dont think that in May all will be finished but believe in June there will be more countries in good shape and there will be open border for some of them. And believe Canada will be in that list!

I would do your small ceremony to be married officially! And you will make your big party later!

Your idea is very good!

I could see myself doing this same scenario if the time comes in September.

It's not easy but, I am waiting as we go. So many things are changin over nigh these days. So it's best in my situation to be patient and wait, our wedding is in september.

Our wedding is June 20th and we are considering super small. I’m thinking that our venue will likely cancel our wedding as we have 160 people. We also had family coming from out of town who who no longer feel safe to travel.

View quoted message I am getting married June 13 and we are on the exact same situation. Our venue is closed and they said that they will get back to us around April 19 so we can make a decision then. My family is coming from Brazil and at this point I'm feeling really hopeless about keeping out wedding date.

Ours is June 18th and we are considering eloping and having a reception at a later date. All our family is from Ontario - we live in Alberta. Our fingers are crossed that this doesn’t last much longer, but time will tell!

View quoted message That’s a good point, I still want to be able to share with family and friends!

Although I'm not in this situation - I would for sure still get married if possible and then celebrate at a different time. From a guest point of view I don't think that they would care that they weren't able to see the ceremony - but at the same time I would see about setting up a tripod or something so that you could play it at the reception.

View quoted message I totally hear you!! The timing of this is insane, I’ve also waited a long time (7 years together, engaged for 18 months) and I’m still in shock this is happening. But I’m also not going to let it stop me!

Our wedding is end of May. I'm staying hopeful that we'll be able to hold the wedding we've planned, but if not we are absolutely having a ceremony even if it's the 2 of us, our minister, and witnesses.
I look forward to the marriage more than the wedding.....and I've waited a long time for this moment. I WILL NOT let a pandemic get in my way!
#faithoverfear

I would wait and see how things look in mid April. I guess it depends on what you have already paid for. My wedding was originally on May 17 and we decided to postpone untill July 18th. My fingers crossed things will be better by then. If not then I think we will postpone until 2021.

View quoted message Omg that’s crazy, planning is stressful enough nevermind everything closing. At least you can plan a reception later and enjoy it knowing you’re both happily married! I might be in the same situation, time will tell!

If it comes down to it, we will be doing something similar! Probably get married even sooner if that's the case

View quoted message Thanks! first they canceled all gatherings over 50 so we decided to cancel and just have a ceremony with close friends and family. Than the hotel we were still going to stay at and was our wedding venue said they were shutting down until May 15 so we decided a day trip to jasper to get married. THAN the county announced all national parks are being shut down..... literally everything that could happen lol. So we picked the next day myself, my fiancé and our officiant all had off to just elope.