How Brides Can Use Their Vendors To Help Them Postpone

With the COVID-19 outbreak crashing weddings around the world, knowing how to postpone a wedding the right way can save you a ton of money.

Of course, you could just cancel, but count on losing even more of your hard-earned cash.

Right now, most wedding planners are advising their clients to postpone, rather than cancel completely.

Now, this is the question of the hour- how can brides use their vendors to help them postpone? Read on for some tips.

How to Use Your Vendors to Help You Postpone Your Wedding

When you cancel or postpone a wedding due to things like illness, a death in the family, or other unforeseen factors of a more personal nature, you typically have a new date in mind.

Unfortunately, canceling due to coronavirus is a bit different. No one knows when things will get back to normal.

Talking to your vendors should definitely be your first step. With so many couples rescheduling their weddings, they’re the best bet for helping you decide on a new date. 

You don’t want to spend hours talking to friends and family to hone in on the perfect new date only to discover that all of your vendors are booked solid for that day.

Before you call, make sure to check their terms and conditions in your contract to make sure you’re within the rescheduling window.

Some vendors may be willing to postpone without additional fees, especially if it’s early enough in your planning stage.

If you’ve waited until the last minute to postpone, though, you need to think about how far along your vendors are in preparations.

Don’t assume that they just stopped working on your wedding the moment the large gathering bans went into effect.

With many couples opting for small backyard or live streamed weddings, vendors aren’t stopping work unless ordered to do so, either by law or by you.

As industry expert Ketterer Walter tells Boston Magazine, don’t expect to get your deposit back if your vendor already started working on your wedding. .

“First, couples should not be expecting to get any deposits back. Those cover the cost of the work and time vendors have already put into planning the wedding, and we want to make sure that vendors are stable enough that they will be here next year. Couples should also keep in mind that there may be postponement fees for moving to a date that is past 2020.”

Fortunately, most vendors are willing to help you postpone your wedding rather than cancel outright.

Consider this, when you cancel, your vendor only gets to keep your deposit. By helping you reschedule, they’ll earn their full fee, just at a later date.

Before you start making those phone calls, though,  take a look over the basic steps below for postponing a wedding.

Steps for Postponing Your Wedding

1.   Call your planner

Calling your wedding planner is your first step (if you have one, of course).

Planners are highly in tune with what’s happening in the business and can help you make the best choices through the process. 

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2.   Talk to your vendors

Whether it is by email or phone call, make sure you discuss it with them.

Ask them for a handful of dates that work for them.

That way, you can hone in on a few options before you talk to your loved ones and your venue.

3.   Check your venue’s availability

In order to successfully postpone your wedding, the venue you chose needs to be available on your desired date.

Given the current situation, this can be the most challenging part.

The earlier you call, the better chance you have of snagging your preferred new date.

4.   Call your vendors back again

Once you’ve set a new date with your family, friends, and venue, it’s time to call your vendors back.

5.   Tell your guests

Of course, your guests need to know you are moving the wedding day.

Make sure to inform them all and ask for a confirmation email or text message if you are not calling them.

Technically, it’s not hard to postpone a wedding, and you need to use everything you can in order to do it without spending a lot more than you planned.

If you do it in time, then everything should be pretty straightforward and your dream wedding can continue.

Did you have to postpone your wedding? How did your vendors help make the job easier? Share below.