Welcome to Wedding Planning COVID-19 Style

The lovely Mother, Creator, and (drumroll please) Future Bride-to-Be is here to tell us all about what it’s like to plan for a wedding that was originally scheduled for the catastrophe of a year, 2020. Laura and her future hubby, Joe, have been extremely open on Instagram about their entire wedding planning process. By doing so, they hope to spread positivity to other couples dealing with event planning during such an unsettling time. These two lovebirds are in-fact high school sweethearts. They initially met in 2001 where they would continue to be friends for nearly 10 years before they actually started to date.

Their wedding story begins right before COVID-19 hit; They got engaged on November 6th, 2019.

“It was the beginning of January that we began to look into and go visit venues. Through the month of February, I didn’t do much aside from making lists of other venues we had planned to visit in March. Go figure, the beginning of March everything broke out and escalated with COVID.”

Laura had been dreaming of her wedding since she was a little girl. She, of course, planned on the process being somewhat stressful, but she did not anticipate the added pandemic pressure.

“Will our wedding need to be postponed or canceled? Will guests be afraid to travel? Will it be safe to travel by then? Will we have to reduce our guest list? (…) There is so much in the air that is out of our control and I feel like we are gambling big-time as we work to make payments towards our dream wedding with so many unknowns.”

When I asked Laura what her biggest struggle has been so far, she answered with, “Missing out on the in-person experiences”. When working with vendors, visiting venues, and even dress shopping, a lot of it had to be done online. They ultimately had to take a gamble on their dream venue and make the down deposit without seeing it in person. As for dress shopping, Laura was still able to partake, but her mother and sister were not (at least physically). Luckily, her family has been extremely accommodating and made it work via Zoom.

“It’s an experience (wedding dress shopping) I’ve dreamt about since early childhood and I am unable, for reasons out of our control, to have them present with me, but we are making the best of it.”

Although the uncertainty of the Coronavirus is without a doubt an additional struggle to navigate on top of anything and everything else, Laura is finding it within herself to remain optimistic. She feels it really is the only way to handle this and move forward. She says one of the good things about all of this is that they have time on their side. The wedding is now scheduled for August 2021 which gives the couple enough time to nail down the wedding of their dreams. The question still remains, how do we adapt to the virtual side of wedding planning?

“When I let my mind get to thinking of the “what if”s, which isn’t too often, the stress pours out.”

As vendors like ourselves, Canyon Catering, we are quickly learning how to properly adjust to our clients right now. She mentions the feeling of safety has not been an issue. Most planning and communication is now accomplished with vendors via email or phone call. Staying socially distanced is what’s expected. Now, that takes some driving out of the equation, but it certainly doesn’t limit the number of choices we have to make while wedding planning.

“I think we’ve made significant progress, but every time I think we are pretty much done planning, someone will ask me about another item or detail. Like flowers or lodging that had entirely slipped my mind. At this point, I’m not entirely sure what I’m still missing.”

Things can definitely get overwhelming at times so we always try to keep our clients as comfortable and as in control as possible. Laura recommends pulling back for a week or two to recenter when things seem to get out of hand mentally. Her biggest piece of advice to couples in the middle of wedding planning is to remain optimistic that the plans will work out.

“Even if things don’t pan out as you have dreamt about, the day will still be glorious as you are beginning this next chapter with your other half and ultimately that is what matters most.”

And now for the tip that will help you in situations far beyond wedding planning: Communication. Our favorite Future Mrs. answered, “What relationship advice would you lend to a friend who is planning a wedding during the same time as you?” with the following.

“Communicate. Communicate. COMMUNICATE. As most relationship advice refers back to open dialogue and communication, I’d like to remind other couples that it is just as important to remember with wedding planning, especially during COVID. Ideas and plans change frequently and not due to our own fault so we must all just go with the flow and keep our heads up. So many things are out of our control and we must not let what is out of our control be taken out on each other.

For more feel-good stories, tips, and advice on event/ wedding planning, follow along: https://canyoncatering.net/