Rescheduling Your Wedding … In 7 Steps
Many couples find they must reschedule their upcoming weddings due to health, career, job, or other issues.
It’s a very personal decision. Those rescheduling need time to make new arrangements and notify their guests — so look at your currently scheduled date, choose a Monday or Tuesday about two months earlier, and make sure you have decided by then.
(To help you plan from home, we also created new Virtual Planning Guides for you.)
Keep Your Team Intact — Consider a Weeknight.
If you decide to reschedule, realize that most Saturday nights in the next few months may already be booked. So unless you’re willing to postpone your wedding until the following year, to find an open date in the current year, you may have to choose a Sunday, a Friday, or even a Monday-Thursday. The good news is that by choosing a weeknight, you’re much more likely to find your vendors are available.
Weeknights? Not a Problem.
I can speak from experience about the advantages of weeknight events, having hosted some 40 of them through my own charitable foundation over nearly 20 years. Our events and dinner-dances benefited breast cancer research and the city’s homeless children and we always got large weeknight turnouts from guests throughout the Tri-State area.
At one weeknight dinner-dance, for example, we welcomed 800 paying guests in two adjacent ballrooms at The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. Among those at my table that night were Warren & Yanna Avis of Avis Rent-A-Car, NY Ranger Captain Ron Greschner & his wife, supermodel Carol Alt, and, decades before he entered politics, Donald Trump & his first wife, Ivana Trump. Models I had photographed for my magazines were selling raffle tickets, Celebrities were mingling with their friends, and the Paparazzi were out in force. ABC-TV even came by to telecast it on their 11 pm news show. All on a weeknight!
Reschedule and Guests Will Come.
Having been through five recessions since launching our first magazine over four decades ago, recent events, like the Covid lockdown, recall the emotional and economic upheaval of 9/11 — when we struggled through an all-consuming crisis … which ultimately changed our lives and our worldview.
In a time of crisis, whether worldwide, national, or personal, it is our natural response to look to our loved ones with an even greater appreciation of their importance in our lives. And so your family and friends will be eager to join you. Yes, some remnants of social distancing may remain, but the joy of being there on your most special day — and seeing family and friends — will be a thrill for all!
Your Rescheduling Plan: 7 Steps
1. Reach Out to Your Venue. Find 2, 3, even 4 available dates. Your venue may have had a policy for rescheduling in the past, but now, most venues are taking a whole new approach to rescheduling and are doing so on a wedding-by-wedding basis. Ask all your questions; get your alternate dates.
2. Reach out to Your Vendors. Create an email with these new venue dates for your vendors (your officiant, photographer, florist, band or DJ, hair stylist, makeup artist, etc.). Ask each to get back to you to confirm as many of these possible dates as they can. Give them a 1-2 day due date for their reply. Call to let them know your “New Date” email was sent and call them again in one or two days for their reply. (You want to lock in the new date with your venue as soon as you can — so no one else can take it! Then you also can lock in the new date with your individual vendors.) A Sample Vendor Email is below.
3. Get Any Alternate Vendor(s), if Needed. If you can’t reschedule a particular vendor, ask for a recommendation, review your original vendor search list, or get a new recommendation from your venue. Yes, you spent untold hours assembling your preferred vendor team. But if scheduling conflicts require you to replace one or two vendors, consider yourself lucky. This area has perhaps more creative talent than any other part of the country!
If possible, clarify all your communications with an email — whether with guests, vendors, or venues. Most people are very distracted these days. An email record can help resolve any confusion or misunderstanding.
6. Wedding Insurance. Your venue may have suggested general liability insurance to protect against a slip and fall injury or some kind of property damage. What about an insurance policy that protects against losses caused by rescheduling due to a future stay-at-home order?
7. We Are Here To Help. If you have any further questions about rescheduling, please contact me at