Whole World is currently facing the heartbreaking and unexpected COVID-19 situation. All engaged couples and the whole destination wedding community are in this together. We are all trying to figure out the best possible ways to get through it as painlessly as possible. Many newlyweds must change their destination wedding plans in this unpredictable period. Fortunately there are many appealing alternatives, such as organizing a backyard wedding. Isabella at Porch.com offers a lot of handy advices on logistics, DIY décor and importance of having a plan B overall. In our article below we provide you with all the information required to make your decisions easier.
Cancel or Postpone Your Destination Wedding in Croatia?
The most frequent question that have been receiving during the last few weeks was ‘Should we cancel or postpone our destination wedding in Croatia?’ If you have the same question, we advise you to take a moment and consider the fact that you would be completely cancelling an event that you’ve been planning and dreaming about since your engagement or even longer. You’ve probably already informed all relatives and friends about your wedding day, which is supposed to be one of the best days in your life and where you and your friends should celebrate your love and happiness. Not just that, but if a wedding is cancelled, hours that you’ve spent planning and organizing will go down the drain.
This situation has brought a lot of changes to the whole world, but we can make sure that it doesn’t completely ruin your hopes and plans. If your wedding cannot be held on the planned date, it can be simply transferred to a later date of your choice. Some minor adjustments might be expected due to the government restrictions.
Furthermore, if you have found yourselves in the later stages of the wedding planning, then you have already made deposits for the wedding venue and some of the suppliers. Considering the circumstances, most of them will consider waiving the date-change fee and allow you to transfer the deposit to the new wedding date. However, they are not able to waive the cancellation fee and completely refund the received deposit in the case of cancelling the wedding. This means that if you simply postpone the wedding date, instead of cancelling the destination wedding, you are not going to lose the invested deposits.
Wedding day is not a compromise, and none of the newlyweds wants to change their wishes and plans after investing so much time and effort in the planning process. On the other hand, every bride and groom deserve to have a planned wedding, even if it requires adjusting to the current situation a bit. That’s why we advise you against cancelling your wedding. Instead give it another thought to find the best possible way to rearrange it, either on the same planned day but with different scenario which is allowed at the planned period, or postpone it for the later date when you will be able to keep everything as it was initially planned.
When is a Good Time to Postpone Your Destination Wedding?
If you are considering to postpone the wedding, then you are most certainly trying to figure out what is the deadline to change the wedding date. You may still be reluctant to change the date, because you are hoping that a stroke of good fortune might make the government loosen the social restrictions, which would render you initial wedding date feasible. When is it completely sure that such stroke of luck would not happen and that postponing is the best option? Unfortunately, longer you delay deciding about the wedding, there is a higher risk of additional costs. Not just that, but other newlyweds are also postponing their weddings, so later wedding dates are getting booked much more frequently. A lot of destination wedding venues and vendors might already be booked on the date that you are considering. The sooner you decide to act, the more flexibility you retain, which will minimize the financial and social impact for you and the guests.
On the other hand, don’t make a hasty decision on postponing, because the best solution is to keep the same wedding date if anyhow possible. Best course of action is to start searching for the alternative date. You should share optional dates with the wedding planner, who may negotiate with the vendors and venue managers to keep the alternative date available for a short period of time, at least until you make a final decision. This way you will have a peace of mind while waiting a bit longer to check whether COVID-19 restrictions get removed.
It is recommended to set the decision deadline at 2 months before the planned wedding day. This way you and your guests still have time to cancel flights, hotels etc. You wouldn’t need to worry, because in case of the the date change you’d leave your guests enough time to cancel their reservations and make new ones.
If a destination wedding in Croatia is planned to be held during the Summer, we are suggesting to postpone the wedding until late Summer or even early Autumn. If a lot of dates are already booked, it might be required to even consider postponing the wedding until the next year.
Checking the Alternative Wedding Dates with the Venue Manager and Suppliers
Same as with planning the wedding, wedding venue should be the highest priority on your list. Dates on which wedding venue is available should be checked before anything else.
After securing the venue, vendors and suppliers availability should be checked. Be aware of the possibility that not all the vendors might be available on the same wedding date. It would be wise to create a list of all the vendors which you have reserved and split them into categories:
- Necessary Vendors and
- Optional Vendors, which can be replaced if needed.
Be prepared that you will need to go back and forth a few times to find a date that suits everyone. If you hired a wedding planner, give her the period in which you would like to set the postponed wedding and entrust her the task of contacting venue manager and vendors and finding a suitable date. Wedding planner can help you immensely, because she already knows your preferred style and respects the budget, so she can quickly find suitable replacements.
Announcing the Postponing of the Wedding
Once a suitable wedding date that suits you and the vendors has been determined, it is time to announce it to the family and other guests. This will take some time, but it might be best to call each guest individually and inform them of the new wedding date. This way you will be sure that everyone has received the message and you will receive their feedback at the same time. Your guests will appreciate you telling them personally and finding time to call them in this situation. It doesn’t need to be mentioned that conversation with the close friends will have a good impact on you, especially during the time of social distancing. Prepare a list of all the guests to call and prioritize the ones who are travelling from afar and need to know the soonest because of the hotel and flight reservations.
If you have enough time after calling your guests, you can also follow them up with a text, email, group chat, social media message or update of your wedding website. That will be a small reminder where they can let you know if they will be able to attend your wedding on a postponed wedding date.
Celebrate the Original Date, although the Wedding is Postponed
You are surely under a lot of stress while all this is happening, and you have complete right to feel sad about postponing your destination wedding. However, be kind and understanding to yourself and others. Even if you feel down, you must know that this is the most socially responsible decision that you can make at the moment.
Also, make the best from the original wedding date. Don’t let it pass by you. Despite the quarantine, you can still celebrate it with those closest to you, even if it means cracking a bottle of champagne and having your first dance in the living room. This moment will connect you even more with your partner. You can also capture it and send it as a beautiful memory to your families and close friends. It will make them happy to know that you didn’t let quarantine bring your mood down. When the new wedding day comes, you can be sure that everyone will dance their shoes off and party will last even longer than it ever would!
To help keep your feelings up and provide peace of mind while postponing a wedding and coordinating venue and vendors, wedding planners at Flammeum stand at your disposal.