Our hearts are heavy during this time as many couples in Southwest Missouri have made the tough decision to reschedule their wedding due to COVID-19. Please know, we are thinking of you and are here to support you as you navigate through this new territory. We are outlining a checklist of items for couples to work through in the following days.
- Reach out to your wedding planner.Your wedding planner is well connected within the wedding industry and communicates with local professionals regularly. Work back with them to have the tough conversation of potentially rescheduling your wedding. They will give you the best guidance and advice to make this process as smooth and stress free as possible.
- Read your contracts. Take the time to sift through each of your wedding merchant contracts so that you have a clear understanding of each.
- Reach out to your wedding merchants. Starting with your venue, reach out to each of your wedding merchants that you have hired. Gather available dates for the next six to twelve months. Then, compare those dates with each of your merchants. Ideally, you are hoping to select a date that aligns with most of your wedding professionals. Try to be as flexible as possible. This is a difficult time for all local wedding merchants and couples alike – it is important that everyone involved keeps an open-mind and is flexible with expectations.
- Request new contracts. Once your date has been selected after talking with each of your wedding merchants, request they send you a new or amended contract listing your new date. Most merchants will need this request in writing via email from the contract signer clearly listing the new wedding date.
- Select new wedding merchants [if needed]. If you had a wedding merchant that unfortunately was not available on your new date, work back with your wedding planner to select a new wedding merchant to fill the category.
- Communicate with guests. Once your new date is selected and all merchants have been notified, communicate to your guests as soon as possible. For immediacy, this can be done at first via phone, text or social media posts. Once the initial communication is out, you will want to order new “Change-the-Dates” to be mailed out to your guests notifying them formally of the new date. If you have a wedding website, update it with the new date.
- Continue Planning. Take a deep breath and continue your wedding planning! The most important thing to remember is that your day will come and you will be married.