Postponed Ceremony / Vow renewals

You can do a vow renewal on the new date or you can just have the reception.

I was hoping to get advice on this topic kinda. We eloped May 22 this year. No one knows we got married because we are having a wedding next May. I was curious people who are having a large ceremony next year and a small one this year...are you changing your name this year or after your next ceremony?


I havent been wearing my wedding band or anything either. I'll do that next year. But we have talked about changing my name. Any thoughts?

We are doing a legal ceremony this year on our original date and not going to announce it. We will be doing a full on ceremony and reception next year. Have discussed this with family and they noted a lot of couples get "legally married" prior to their wedding (i.e. destination wedding) without people knowing.

Is is the route we went! We postponed to August (and have recently decked to push out to our 1 year anniversary due to the continued uncertainty of the current situation). We told people when we did our legal ceremony that our plan is to have another celebration at our later date. We have yet to update about the most recent change however plan is to announce on social media and send out new invites (we got free ones utilizing the Shutterfly Reprint Promise program for date changes due to COVID). Planning is to announce somewhat like this “Third time’s a charm! The health and safety of our friends, family, ourselves and our vendors are of most importance to us. This is why we have made the decision to further push out our date to April 25th 2021, our one year anniversary. We ask that our guests join us to celebrate our love, one year to the day that we got married, same time, same place, when things are hopefully a lot better and safer! Thank you for all your love, support and understanding! We cannot wait to celebrate!” and then you can tweak it however you feel! Hopefully this helps! 😊

I love this idea. It's beautiful!
I think you could tell them its a vow renewal. I am sure most guests will understand its more of a wedding celebration due to COVID. I think it will end up being beautiful.

Yes - I would word it as a "celebration of marriage" on the invitation and "renewal of vows"

I am doing the exact same thing. I am getting married in the Catholic church so our priest will be able to make our vow renewal just like the ceremony the best way he can.

If you plan on getting legally married this year I would put something like "join us as we celebrate our marriage and renew our vows" on the 2021 invites. People will be understanding that the 2020 wedding season did not go as planned, and hopefully they will appreciate that they get to share some part of that with you! If you don't want a vow renewal I would acknowledge that the invite is for the party so "a belated celebration of our marriage" would send the proper message.


We've postponed our reception and plan on a small symbolic vow renewal next year so the family who cannot attend this year can still experience some of the pomp and circumstance of a traditional wedding.