Mastering Wedding Planning Like a Pro During a Pandemic

COVID-19 has taken the world by storm for the past 2 years and she just won’t let up. From wearing masks to mandatory vaccinations, and social distancing to sanitization, it’s safe to say we’re all a little confused on what to do next.

Safe to say all of the weddings we have hosted in 2020 and 2021 have been a major success with the right planning and research. Here are a few tips to help you plan your wedding like a pro during the pandemic.

Send Out Invitations Early

At Completely Bridal, we encourage our couples to send out their invitations 6 months in advance. Sending out your invitations early gives you ample time to know how many guests intend to attend the wedding. You should recieve RSVP’s back 2 months before the wedding date, which gives you enough time to reorganize your seating chart, minimize your guests count with your venue,

Create a Wedding Website

Creating a wedding website helps you stay in communication with your wedding guests without having to text or call everyone individually. All of your wedding details will be listed in one place for guests to revisit as many times as they need. Usually on a wedding website you would include the couple’s names, the wedding party, wedding date, location, hotel accommodations and a background story of the couple’s history. Some website platforms like The Knot, Zola, and Minted Weddings even allow your guests to RSVP directly from your website. We encourage couples to also include COVID restrictions for the area your wedding will be taking place, COVID rules for the Venue + Hotel, and your own precautions you would like to set in place.

Require Vaccination Status

If your wedding venue requires you and your guests to have the COVID vaccination, you’ll definitely want to add this note to your website for guests to see. It would totally suck for someone to RSVP to the event, travel all the way to the event, and cannot attend because they do not have proof of vaccination. In this case, every detail matters. So, try adding a line on your RSVP card that requires guests to identify whether they are vaccinated or not.

Enforce a Safety Plan

Creating a safety plan will help you stay in control of how germs are spread. There are so many ways to incorporate disinfectant at your wedding event and still be super sophisticated. Create welcome bags for gifts that are full of emergency kit items like hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, an Emergen-C, vitamins and plenty more. Your guests will appreciate the gesture and don’t be surprised if you see if everyone using hand sanitizer every 5 minutes, thanks to you. You can even add hand sanitizer on your wedding tables. One for each guests. You can literally bulk up on mini hand sanitizers from your local dollar store, which is AWESOME! Saving and Safety…..who would’ve thought.

Plan A + Plan B + Plan C

With every plan A, you need a plan B! And, if a plan B is already thought about before a plan A is even in the works, then a plan C is definitely a must. Plan C’s are essential for 2022 weddings just like Vitamin C is essential for our immune systems. Your Plan A should definitely be your dream wedding vision where all of your guests can attend and travel to the location of your choice. However, a Plan B needs to be implemented if restrictions change. For example, if you are a couple who is planning a destination wedding in Jamaica, you should want have a plan b just incase the CDC applies another travel ban or restriction, like hosting a local wedding where your closest friends and family can attend. Now what if they say you can only have up to 50 people in one space and you have a guests count of 150, a great plan C would be to either elope, or have a minimony where guests who cannot attend watch the ceremony virtually.

Hire a Coordinator

Hiring a day/month-of coordinator will help take away some of the wedding stress. Wedding stress is honestly unevitable because brides tend to stress the most minor details, which is totally okay because it is their day their way. Howvever, say NO to being a bridezilla. A coordinator will be able to assist you in keeping healthy communication with your wedding vendors and wedding guests on your behalf, enforce safety precautions when guests fall short, and manage the flow of your wedding day.

Revise Vendor Contracts

REVISE REVISE REVISE! At Completely Bridal we are HUGE on revising venue and vendor contracts. There is always a slip in the crack that you missed and forgot to read. Non-refundable deposits will be your greatest regret when signing contracts if you did not truly understand what that means. 7/10 vendor contracts have a non-refundable deposit of a percentage of their service or package price and what that means is that once your contract is signed and your deposit is paid, if you chose to cancel the vendor’s service, you do not recieve your deposit back. So you’ll want to do your research on at least about 10 vendors in a specific category minimum before signing on the dotted line. You’ll thank us later!

Offer a Virtual Ceremony Viewing

Virtual ceremony viewings are a great way to let guests who could not attend the physical wedding feel included. No one wants to miss the big day, no matter how near or far they are. You can thank your guests for attending your virtual wedding by pre-sending favors in the mail so they can open the day of the event. Our Personalized Champagne Toast To-Go boxes were a hit all 2021 so virtual attendees could join in on the toast at the reception. We allowed a few members to say loving messages to the guests and partied until all the cake was gone.

Have an Outdoors Wedding

Consider having an outdoors wedding. It will definitely make social distancing so much easier than trying to cram all of your guests in one space. Airy spaces are ideal for group settings during COVID because guests won’t be arm to arm sharing and spreading germs because they are arms distance apart.

Minimize Your Guests List

Lighten the load a little bit! That long lost friend you haven’t spoken to since junior high school doesn’t need an invitation to the wedding, and I’m pretty sure that aunt that always talks about your weight at the dinner table can get a virtual invite too. Minimizing your guests count not only helps keep the spread of germs down but it also saves you tons of money.

Ask Your Venue Coordinator About Any COVID Precautions

Your COVID restrictions and your venues COVID restrictions are two different things. Ask your venue coordinator months in advance what the precautions are projected to be, so you can update your website. However, you will also want to check in with the venue the month-of to see if anything has changed.

Consolidate Your Service Providors

Your vendors are also part of your guests count, so the fewer vendors you hire the less guests you will have in attendance at your wedding. When researching photographers and videographers try looking for packages that include only one photographer or videographer instead of two, opt out of a seated dinner and do family style dining to element the amount of banquet staff needed, or DIY your own florals to avoid hiring a florist. It’s safe to say the pandemic is actually trying to help you save money instead overspend! Your budgets should be thanking COVID.

Set Day-of Expections

Set realistic expectations for the day of your wedding and communicate them to your guests. Adding a lovely note to your website the week of your wedding is a great way to set the tone for the upcoming event. If you are strict about vaccination status’, please communicate that to your guests. Surprises don’t always end well. If you require guests to wear custom mask that you will have provided them, then you need to enforce. This is your wedding day, so guests will adhere to your wishes.

It’s Okay to Postpone

If things are getting to hectic and you are still unsure if you want to move forward with your projected wedding date because COVID restrictions keep changing every other month, then we highly suggest you do so. Spending hundreds and thousands of dollars is no joke, and it would be a shame for it all to go to waist, all because you didn’t postpone your wedding. And for my late birds, Postponing does not mean alerting your venue or vendors the week or month-of. You should know at least 4-5 months prior to the big day if you are going to move forward with your wedding date or postpone to a later date. If you are worried people will not attend if you postpone your wedding, don’t be. Everything happens for a reason.