Planning Your Wedding Like a Pro During a Pandemic
You were loving the engaged life, planning your dream wedding with the biggest smile on your face and then a pandemic happens. Now what? You're thinking to yourself... "OK, so do I continue planning my wedding as usual or put everything on hold for now?"
After reading this post, I am confident that you will feel a weight lifted off your shoulders because you will have the direction you need to get back to planning your wedding like a pro! AND you'll actually be excited about your wedding again. That's a promise!
Alright, so here are some tips to help take away your stress and help get you back on the right track to planning your dream wedding like a pro!
Stay Calm
Its such an unfortunate situation and I really do feel for all the couples who have been affected by COVID-19. However, getting anxious and nervous about your wedding should not be part of your wedding planning journey. When you feel overwhelmed with everything, take a deep breath and remind yourself that love isn't cancelled. You still have each other and your love for one another, and in the end isn't that what your wedding is all about; celebrating your love with your family & friends. When the time is right, your wedding day will be here and it will be the best day ever!
Create a Wedding Vision Board
Do you have Pinterest? If you don't, go sign up and get pinning! Start putting together a vision board with wedding inspo pictures. Think of your colours, florals, head table decor, seating chart and even incorporate a mobile event space that can transform throughout your day (think bridal suite, photo booth, a specialty liquor bar and so much more). Chaos & Cappuccino’s mobile event space, Mabel is your very own blank canvas to create the vision of your dreams and her options are endless.
Once you have put together a pinterest board, take a second look and really see which "pins" you are totally crushing on. Other pictures that you may not be feeling anymore, discard them. Once you have a good base, use a design tool like Canva and place all these pictures in a document. To really design your wedding like a pro, break your wedding vision board into different categories, like colours & aesthetic, venue, stationery, florals, tablescape and so on. Having a solid vision board from the start allows your vendor team to really understand your true vision for your special day and helps keep your wedding design cohesive & beautiful.
Start Collecting Emails & Phone Numbers
If you are still in the midst of deciding whether or not to postpone, this is a great time to start collecting emails & phone numbers of your guests. This allows you to be one step ahead, and as a planner you always need to plan accordingly because you just never know what will come your way. Like I say, "plan for the worst, hope for the best" By collecting these details now, this will save you time and energy, as you will be able to inform guests immediately once (if) the decision is made to postpone.
Consider Lowering Your Guest Count
Since we are now in month two of quarantine life and 5 people is the max amount for any gatherings in Ontario, you may want to revisit your guest list if you do plan on having a larger wedding. The economy is slowly re-opening, which is a great thing, but we are not sure of what that really means for the future. Maybe we get a second wave and strict restrictions are in place again? Maybe we don't (I really hope that is the case). However, because the future is so uncertain right now, the best thing you could do right now is consider all your options now, so you have all the details needed when the game-time decision needs to be made.
Book ALL Your Vendors
If you don't have your entire vendor team booked yet, get on it! I suggest you start looking into the vendors that caught your eye before, or maybe you inquired but never made it official. There is no better time to support local and help those vendors make it to next year. By you providing a deposit to secure their services for your wedding day, it will give them hope and the opportunity to continue to be part of your beautiful wedding celebrations. 2021 dates will be very limited with all the postponements, so it's best to book all your wedding vendors now, so you have your first pick at your favourites!
Keep Your Vendors in the Loop
If you are thinking of postponing your wedding, let your vendors know. Reach out to them and inquire about a few dates they currently have available. It's good to know ahead of time if their is a mutual date that works for all your vendors, because if it does happen where you have to postpone, you'll already have a new date that works for everyone. Just continue to keep the communication open with your vendor team because late 2020 dates and all 2021 dates are booking up quickly.
Ideal Plan B
With so much uncertainty right now, it's hard to determine if your original wedding plans will work out (I really hope they do for you!), so thinking of an ideal plan B is being proactive. Think to yourself, what is really important to you and your partner and make that the main focus. Put together a new plan that you will be happy to follow through with if things don't go as originally planned.
I hope after reading these wedding planning tips, you now know what to do to keep moving in the right direction for your wedding. It might not go as planned, and that's OK. No event or wedding day ever goes as planned, and that's why you hire a wedding planner, so you have someone to take care of all the mishaps that happen on a wedding day. A wedding planner's job is to make sure you have the best day ever, and if you follow these helpful tips, I know you will have a memorable wedding celebration.
XO Claudia