Postponing a wedding but still getting married?

It's so hard! I've been there and it was so stressful, so I'm sorry you're going through this too! Perhaps my experience will help? Our venue would only allow us to cancel or postpone (non-refundable deposit). It was such a difficult decision but we ended up postponing with our venue, guest count was 170. We really wanted to be married so my husband (love to say that!) and I got married this past July on our original day when Ontario was just entering into stage 2! We had a mini ceremony and reception with just our wedding party and immediately family for a total of 26 people. It was perfectly imperfect but so glad we did it and will have the wedding I envisioned and worked so hard for next July! I used my officiant (since we're legally married next year's ceremony will be a family member), broke up the contract with my photographer (2 hours this year and 8 hours next year). I did very basic bouquet and boutonnieres (my bridesmaid just carried babies breath) then did the music myself this year. Two weddings seems crazy but there is a silver lining! You get to wear your dress twice (mine is strapless so adding off the shoulder sleeves to it next year to change it up). I'll change my jewelry and hair style too, maybe loose the veil the second time! Little things to still make the wedding day a bit different but as close as your original vision! I'm also changing my last name next week. To us marrige is a commitment of two people and our love, a wedding is the celebration. I didn't want us to completely put our lives on hold. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions but I'm glad I've come to terms with the fact there are two wedding. I'll get the true experience of marrying my best friend when planned and celebrating as planned (of that makes sense haha). Both special circumstances! Hope that helps in some way. Best of luck and just do whatever fills your heart!

Actual wedding can still take place in the next year or two given you will be celebrating your anniversary with your guests present once all this clears up.

The wedding itself can take place with just family present and having the marriage certificate at hand to avoid paying again for it and past the 3 months. It seems right to get married if your heart is set for the original date. You can wear your dress twice for your wedding and anniversary.

In case you want to continue weighing your options, if you picked up your marriage license prior to July 24, the 90 day period does not apply as the province extended all marriage licenses issued during the state of emergency to expire 24 months after the issue date. If you meet the criteria and want to legally get married on the day of your actual celebration, you can.

If you want to go through with the legal marriage in 2020, you would have to conduct it on private property with an officiant registered with the province. You can rent a church, meeting room/event space in any hotel function room, banquet hall, golf/country club, or other event space in Ontario that's currently operating. Most of the above will require masks, especially if you're indoors. AirBNBs have banned event listings and I'm pretty sure all city hall and civic centre facilities in the GTHA will not be open for a wedding ceremony.

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Haha that's adorable about the dog! How cute! We are in an apartment so we don't have a backyard, and I'm awful at keeping secrets so there's noooo way I could pretend we didn't already get married. I'm glad it worked out for you guys though!

Hey there,


We also postponed our wedding until next year but got married on our original date. We had a small ceremony in our backyard with just our parents and siblings keeping within the restriction limit for the time (also in Ontario). We had our officiant come to our house and preform the marriage (we already had him booked and just rebooked him again from next year's) we decided to keep our small ceremony a secret from the rest of our guest so that our experience next year can feel like it should have if covid wasn't an issue. I still want to also have the traditional reception with father/daughter dance. I didn't wear the dress u had purchased I'm saving it for next year a big reason being it's a lace dress and I have two dogs and was worried it would get ruined in our backyard ceremony (turns out I made the right call as my one dog came running out immediately after the ceremony and got a dog print on my white dress 😂 photographer was amazing and edited the small spot I couldn't wipe off enough.
I say if you both want to do it have a small backyard ceremony with your parents do it!. If you want to do vows again do them you can have it as a vow renewal or tell no one and do it again (our officiant is doing up fake paperwork for us to sign again so it really seems real for everyone). Depending on where you are the courthouse might not be open (it wasn't when we had our ceremony).
Hope this helps give you some ideas!