Love in The Time of Corona: Top 3 Tips on Planning a Wedding in 2020
*In the comments I will answer any questions you may have about said topic
The year 2020 is the year with the most hyperboles one could ever think of. To say that these days are unprecedented times, would honestly be an understatement.
And to plan a wedding in the midst of a global economic crisis and a pandemic? It would definitely be considered bonkers — yet that’s exactly what we did.
My beloved husband and I got hitched last August the 20th. This would be about two and a half months ago.
Planning the danged event was definitely not an easy feat. I think I may have hit my quota of emotional breakdowns during the month of June. While the month of July was almost just like a total blur for me, where I threw my hands up in the air in total resignation, and let the wedding gods take over. “Que sera sera” as the Chicanos may say. What will be — will be.
So how did we go about planning such a significant event in every couple’s lives in the midst of the global chaos going on?
Here are my top three tips:
- ) Be Very Mindful of Deposits
I am so lucky that my partner Stephen is more level-headed than I am. The month of May was definitely the height of all businesses shutting down. I remember this because we stayed home for my birthday. All restaurants/pubs were closed, as mandated by the Alberta government.
Anyway, with all the changing restrictions that we had to follow (and that we’re all still following right now) we weren’t so sure that our guests were going to be able to attend our wedding.
So this made us very confused about whether or not we should be spending downpayments on wedding vendors.
Stephen was all about holding off while I was all about, let’s go. Let’s do this. Let’s just get everything booked.
For some reason, Stephen was able to convince me that it would be smarter to hold off with the downpayments because we wouldn’t even be sure if our wedding date would push through or if we had to postpone to the year 2021.
It was a good thing that I listened because we had to change our wedding location. Instead of holding our wedding in Stephen’s hometown, we ended up getting married here in Edmonton instead.
The only financial damage deposits we still haven’t been able to get back were the five-hundred dollars to our initial photographer, another five-hundred dollars to my designer in the Philippines, and then another five-hundred dollars to my first day-of coordinator.
Don’t get me wrong, these are still huge amounts of money for us. But I think we did pretty well controlling our budget. I’ve heard stories of some couples who still haven’t gotten their five or ten thousand dollar downpayments for venues and other wedding vendors out there. And I sincerely feel bad for them (couples and vendors alike — we have to remember that vendors are also losing huge amounts of money nowadays).
2.) Listen To Your Partner!
He is your husband-to-be for a reason.
The months' March and May were the height of the lockdowns in Edmonton and group gatherings were limited to five to six people with social distancing. We literally thought we were gonna have to do a city hall wedding at that point.
Also, Stephen only had one request; that his grandparents be a part of our wedding. I’m glad that he made this request because a wedding is not just about the bride. It is absolutely also about the groom!
Since I was also very close to my paternal grandparents, I knew this was a big deal for Stephen. I knew it was gonna be crucial for us that we hold our wedding in Stephen’s hometown — in Ochre River, Manitoba.
But because of the provincial travel restrictions where one had to quarantine for fourteen days in and out of every province, we realized we had to re-assess our wedding plans.
Making his grandparents travel to Edmonton was out of the question as they would be considered high-risk and having the wedding in Manitoba was also unlikely — what with the 14-day quarantining and all.
It was a good thing that I listened to Stephen. Had I not done so, I wouldn’t have known what he truly wanted for our wedding and we would have ended up depositing a huge amount of money to our wedding vendors — which we probably would never get back — ever.
3.) Consider A Day-Of Coordinator
Having a day-of coordinator is a more practical option than getting a Wedding Planner.
I know, I know. I loved the movie too. And unfortunately, just like in the movie, getting an actual wedding planner would be very costly and impractical.
So for brides-to-be out there with regular day-jobs, a day-of coordinator is the next best thing.
If you are like me, who easily gets anxiety-attacks just thinking about all the tiny little details that come with planning the entire hurrah of a wedding and with all my closest girlfriends scattered around the world who just wouldn’t be able to support me the way I need them to, then a day-of coordinator is the way to go that would still be within your budget.
Plus, it’s like having your entire bridal party on email, chat, and virtual support every time any kind of wedding anxiety hits you in the middle of your day.
TBH, the moment we finalized hiring our day-of coordinator, everything just fell into place for us. They asked us the right questions and they slowly but firmly nudged us to complete priorities that we - as the bride and groom - had to do ourselves.
There should be several packages offered by different Day-Of Coordinator companies. For us, we took what they called an elopement package of $1,800.00 CAD which already included the following:
- Wedding Officiant (our choice)
- Minimal wedding background decor
- A small table and two chairs for signing of wedding documents
- Bride’s bouquet
- Groom’s boutonniere
- Mini sound system (they would play a list of our choice of music)
- Virtual Livestream Management (for family and friends who want to celebrate from afar)
- Two-tier wedding cake/Two dozen cupcakes (our choice)
- Non-alcoholic bubbly
- Wearable flowers — set of earrings and necklace (not included in the package — additional $100)
I mean, just look at that list of things that they had to take care of for us?
So, that’s my top three recommendations.
To sum up all of how Stephen and I felt during our wedding preparations, we were just very ready to accept that most of our invited guests wouldn’t be able to make it. Somehow, I guess the wedding gods came in our favor.
When businesses slowly started to re-open by June and the number of group gatherings slowly increased from ten people and then to fifteen people by July, we were relieved. We knew then that there would at least be some semblance of a wedding party allowed at our wedding in August.
So all-in-all, if you are a couple getting married this year, keep an open mind and an open heart for all sorts of possibilities.
Sadly, as I type this entry, Edmonton is now bracing itself for a second surge, and the numbers of Corona-positive cases are rising every day.
So the smartest thing to do right now is to keep supporting and loving each other until the number of cases goes down — wherein the possibility of an actual wedding gathering would be safe to do again.
Take care and stay safe always my dear reader.
Until next time.
