UK weddings will not take place until July at the earliest, according to Government guidelines. The wedding planning app Bridebook, states that approximately 64% of 2020 weddings have been impacted by coronavirus so far, either due to postponements, cancellations, or travel logistics, with an estimated loss of £87.5bn to the global wedding industry. If you have decided to postpone your wedding, you will need to contact all the suppliers that you have worked with in order to move dates and check availability. Before you do this, read our guidance on how to handle this to make sure you don’t lose out!
Availability
The first thing you will need to find out is whether your current suppliers have the availability you need on the new date you want to move to. Many people incorrectly believe that suppliers have the endless ability to move things around, but many suppliers can only work on one or two weddings per date. Before you finalise your dates, check-in with all your suppliers to find out if that date works for them too.
Payment Schedule
Before you speak to your suppliers you should check the terms and conditions in the contracts which you have with each of them. Trying to postpone to an agreed new date is likely to be a better option for the suppliers than indefinite postponement.
If you’re thinking about postponing till next year, consider offering to pay your suppliers 75% of their contract now and then the final balance next year. Trust me, they will really appreciate it.
If you are paying any of your suppliers on a monthly basis, then you will need to get in touch with the supplier to advise them of the new date and find out if this means your payment plan will change. Some suppliers may be happy to extend the payment schedule, as others, may want to continue with the original schedule.
Additional Charges
Read your contract and read it again, see if there’s any clause about having to pay a fee to rearrange dates. At the moment, venues and suppliers are being very flexible so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Ideally a supplier would move your wedding to another date for no additional charge, however if they did incur costs, they should charge those without profit or mark-up. At Perfectly Planned 4 You, we are running a policy that so long as a wedding is moved within 12 months of the original date there are no additional charges.
Seek Help
It may sound like a crazy idea, but if you are postponing your wedding, then this may be the best time to employ a wedding planner. Most wedding planners will charge you for a planning package that suits your needs and using one when it comes to postponing and changing dates means that you can use their skills to get the best deals from all your suppliers!
Once you have changed all your suppliers to your new date, you can focus on getting excited for your big day. Here at Perfectly Planned 4 You, we understand the strain postponing can cause and we have worked with many couples to rearrange dates so that they can focus on getting to that date and enjoying their special day. Call us today if you want help with postponing your wedding.
Please remember suppliers will be dealing with a great deal of emails at this time, so please be patient and respectful and your suppliers will be the same with you.
You can checkout the rest of our ‘COVID-19 Series’ here:
Don’t Let Covid-19 Stop You Planning
We Are Still Getting Married, But Postponing
