Communication Tips for Postponing Your Wedding
Photo: Four Corners Photography
Since early March, COVID-19 has forced couples to make big changes to their wedding plans. Today, we’re sharing best practices and answers to frequently asked questions we’ve received when it comes to postponing your wedding and communicating with your guests.
Best Practices
Be swift and clear. Communicating with guests in a time of such uncertainty is so key, so that means swift and clear messaging. Depending on the time frame, you can utilize digital or snail mail communication. With the ever-changing nature of the pandemic. staying on top of the news and keeping your guests informed should be as seamless as possible.
Something is better than nothing! Be sure to communicate a change in plans quickly and effectively, by sharing what you know when you know it. If you're unsure of Plan B just yet, but know you want to make a change, send a digital notice to your guests to give a heads up. Utilize your wedding website for updates and more detailed information.
How to Word your Postponement Announcement:
Be clear and sincere. Something like the following might work, depending on where you are in the postponement process:
Change of Plans v1
We are thrilled to be celebrating our upcoming marriage with our loved ones, but due to uncertainty and health concerns, we have decided to alter our wedding plans at the moment. We are considering our options and will be in touch as soon as we know more. Please visit our wedding website for additional information.
Change of Plans v2
We have chosen to postpone our wedding and are in the process of making the necessary changes to keep everyone safe and ensure that we can celebrate with you all soon. Thank you for your continued love and patience. We will be updating our wedding website with additional details once we have the information to share.
Save our NEW date!
We have rescheduled our wedding and our new date is XXX! We are hopeful that we will be able to safely gather and celebrate with you soon. As soon as we have specifics, we'll be in touch!
Design by: Lairsey Paper Co.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it better to send printed announcements or can we send a digital announcement?
We suggest streamlining your messaging to your guests through a digital notice, for ease and especially if this is a time sensitive matter, i.e. your wedding was originally set for a date only two months from now. Websites like Paperless Post offer Change of Plans and Change of Date options that are chic and effective. There are also many beautiful digital choices through designers like Lairsey Paper Co. or even on Etsy, however we find that emails with images attached are sometimes getting lost in the fray or going to spam.
Once you have officially postponed and reschedule the event, you can choose to send a paper suite out to your guest list, or choose to go digital moving forward.
If our postponed event is moved to next year, do we need to send out brand new invitations closer to the new wedding date?
Yes, we encourage you to stick to the etiquette time frame of paper goods: Save the Date approximately 6-8 months before the date and Invitation approximately 8-12 weeks before the date. However, if this is a rescheduled wedding date, be sure to let your guests know ASAP.
What information do we need to include on our wedding website regarding our postponed wedding?
Wedding websites are a fantastic central location for all of the pertinent information your guests need to know, from date changes to location updates, safety guidelines to special requests. Use the website to keep your guests informed as you make changes, but for something like a major change of plans, don't only rely on your website as guests won't check unless they're prompted to. The trick is to link or note your website url on all communication and to share more details there.
For more tips & advice regarding COVID-19 and your wedding, click here.