When the CDC announced its recommendation to cancel all events over 50 people until mid-May, there was an onslaught of contract cancellations across the board for the wedding industry. This started the hard train of questionable finances for small businesses and individuals alike. The fear and panic and tight feelings in chests led to some swift actions – and before you jump on the bandwagon of cancelling your event, I urge you to stop and take a breath.

You can still get married.

You will still get married.

It’s true, that it might not look the way you imagined. It might have a different date on it, or it might be smaller, or you may have to choose another venue. But somewhere, somehow, down the line you will marry your favorite person.

So if there’s anything I urge you to consider, I’d say stop, take a breath, and choose to postpone your event, not cancel it. It’s okay if you don’t have all the details planned out yet, or even a new date. It’s okay if you have to ask to change the service a bit (fewer hours, fewer centerpieces, etc). It’s okay if you cry a bit on the phone when you call all your vendors and it’s okay to get angry.

But the cold hard truth? Contract provisions are in place to help protect businesses that would possibly go through something like this – and there’s a good chance you wouldn’t get your retainer back if you outright cancel your event.

While I believe it could be absolutely crucial that you change details of your event (like guest count, for example) it doesn’t mean that you’ll outright cancel every service you initially signed up for – and this money that you placed down is much better spent towards some form of service (even if it means your 20 person wedding will have enough florals for a waterpark’s worth of people). And vendors are so much more willing to transfer the retainer you already paid to another date, time, service, etc. We WANT to make you happy. We want so badly to take away as much stress as possible, and we want to be on your team (which is why I always allow date transfers and postponements, always).

So consider postponing instead of outright cancelling your event.

Your love will find it’s way – in one form or another.


M