Stephanie Reitsma, owner and principal planner of Sweetheart Events was kind enough to join me on my blog and share her thoughts on how best to communicate with guests about wedding postponements in 2021.

Is it hard to be a planner right now? 

I would say yes. The love for what I do is not in the budgeting templates, or the emailing as much as it is in the executing the day and meeting my couples in person. That’s what I truly love and not getting the opportunity to do that right now, is really hard. We are getting SO many inquires for 2022, so our calendars are absolutely booked with consultations. As for 2021 it is still looking promising for us. We specialise in more intimate weddings anyway so all of the bookings we have for 2021 have been setup with COVID restrictions in mind so our couples have been setup for success from the beginning. So, it’s hard, but things are looking promising.

 

Have you found couples are expecting postponements? 

Absolutely. However, I’m driving the optimistic train. Get on board! We’ve got to be optimistic and hopeful right now. The couples reaching out to us are excited. The future is looking promising, but they are looking to talk about plan A and plan B when it comes to their wedding and coming in prepared to have those awkward contractual conversations, which is great, because it’s so important for couples to recognise the importance of understanding the postponement/cancellation policies of their vendors. As exciting as hiring a wedding vendor can be this is not the time to just scroll to the bottom of their contract and sign without understanding what it is you’re agreeing to. 

What do you recommend couples do to communicate with guests about postponements? 

The first thing I recommend you do is sit down with your partner and figure out what dates are perfect for you. Don’t let vendors tell you when you need to get married. Once you have your list of dates go and speak with your venue and vendors and see what you can work out with them. 

 

The Wedding Website

While you’re in this planning phase add a message to your wedding website letting your guests know that you are planning your wedding and that they can keep up to date by checking the website. Ask your guests to refrain from emailing or texting you directly as plans will likely be changing. A wedding website is a great way to keep your guest list up to date with changing plans. You can send out emails to everyone with updates and fun little animations, songs, and FAQ’s. Who said changing plans wasn’t fun? 

 

 

“I’ve included a graphic template couples can use when postponing their wedding and communicating with guests.”

 

While sending a postponement email to guests is never what we expect in the planning process, we can add some personalization and share that this is an exciting time again. This new wedding date allows your guests to celebrate with you again and move past the uncertainty and look forward to a new celebration for you. Trust me, we can have fun with this! I have personally had couples share GIF’s, personal video messages from them to their guests, photo collage of what they’ve been up to or YouTube song links so there is a song while the guests read the email. The options are endless! While this is not an ideal moment in the planning journey, let’s make this NEW save the date email fun and bring the excitement back into planning. What will you do?