Trying to Plan a Wedding During Quarantine?

Planning a wedding in the best of times is a stressful endeavor. Trying to do so under a global pandemic makes it 100x more difficult. I'd like to share with you our story and a few tips to making these trying times more bearable.

My fiancé Chris and I got engaged in October 2019. "We" started planning as soon as we got engaged. I'm only kidding, Chris has been very involved with the planning. Our first mission was to find the perfect location. I created an excel sheet of venues, contacts, pricing and capacity from coast to coast, but after hours of discussions on what each of us had in mind for our perfect wedding, we decided to have a destination wedding. Deciding where exactly opened up a whole other pandoras box of questions.

Chris and I both grew up on the East coast. He is from New York and I grew up in Southern Ontario. Most of our family and friends reside on the East coast, but we also have family in the Mid-West and all along the West Coast. At first, we talked a lot about what was going to be most convenient and cost effective for our guests. Then we decided, lets not worry about who is going to come or how they are going to get there. Let's think about making the best possible memories for not only us, but for our favorite people in the world too. This is how we decided to do a destination wedding. Some of our fondest memories are of vacations with friends and family. We wanted to spend several days with our guests, not only a few hours.

We scoured the internet for a few weeks searching for the perfect location before settling on the beautiful beaches of Semana. It took a few more weeks to find the perfect wedding planner, photographer, hotels and villas. Amidst all of this planning we had family and friends showering us with visits and engagement parties. The wedding planning quickly took on a life of its own. Within the first couple of months of planning I had found not only one, but two perfect wedding dresses, we had asked "our people" to be our Maid of Honor and Best Man, written our vows, built a wedding website AND sent out our Save-the-Dates.

In the new year, we took a trip to the Dominican Republic with some of our friends to meet our vendors, wedding planner and photographer and to visit some of the villas and nearby hotels. The planning thus far had gone seemingly swimmingly. We were feeling so happy with our decision to have the wedding on this beautiful remote part of the island.

Fast forward to one month later - the world came to a screeching halt. Literally. All businesses closed down, weddings were being cancelled left and right, small businesses were going under, all travel was suspended until further notice, and well, you're living this too so you know all to well.

For all of March, April, and May we waited and hoped for things to turn around and go back to normal. Wishful thinking. Friends and family members called for updates asking "Is the wedding still on?", "Should we book flights?", "Are you going to postpone?", and "Are you going to change the location to somewhere in the US?". We didn't know how to answer any of these very valid questions. We didn't know what the future held! We wanted to keep our wedding date because we met on this date and got engaged on this date. We were hoping to get married on this date too, but not at the expense of our family and friends health and well being.

In late May, we decided the best plan of action was to post-pone our wedding to next year. Fortunately, our wedding planner, photographer, vendors and the owners of the villas were very amenable to changing the dates. The next course of action was to update our wedding website and order the change of date cards. We're relieved to have additional time to plan and that we no longer have to worry about putting our friends and family members at risk.

Here are a few expert-recommended ways to plan for your wedding during quarantine.

Create a Pinterest Account.

The easiest way for me to convey our aesthetic to our wedding planner and photographer abroad was to create story boards on instagram and on Pinterest so they could get a clear picture of what we want. I created boards for poses with family, poses with friends, table settings, table decor, flowers, dresses, ring bearer outfits, flower girl dresses, etc. These boards can be shared with your wedding planner, florist, photographer and with your groom and bridal parties. If you aren't sure what your aesthetic is yet, Pinterest is a great way to narrow it down. You can check out my boards on Pinterest by clicking HERE.

Write your vows and speeches.

If you and your fiancé plan to write your own vows, now is the perfect time to do so. You can create multiple drafts so you wind up with vows that convey every emotion you have for your partner without feeling rushed. I've met several brides and grooms that have left their vows and speeches until the last minute, even the morning of! Talk about stressful! By giving yourselves this extra time to reflect and perfect, you're sure to make them beautiful. Same goes for the many speeches you'll give throughout the wedding weekend. Its always better to prepare in advance so your words are concise, thoughtful and memorable for all who share these special moments with you both.

Create your ceremony and reception playlists.

Music creates lasting memories. You remember the songs you used to sing along to on your way to school, to and from sports practices, on road trips with your best friends, and the first song you and your fiancé first slow danced too. There's no time like the present to be building your playlists for your special day. There are the important songs that will play for the introductions of groom and bridal parties, the couples first dance, the mother son dance, the father daughter dance, etc. These ones should be to your taste, either sentimental or fun and energetic to liven the crowd. The music throughout the night should play to everyones taste, multigenerational. You want to keep the dance floor packed all night so make sure your considering everyones tastes for music and not only your own.

Iron out logistics.

There are so many little things that have to be taken care of before the big day. It's a good idea to create time lines for the day and itemized to-do lists of things to check off. Start working through those lists now, while you have the time. Do you plan to provide fans or hats or gifts for your guests? Start buying things now so you're not ordering things last minute. Have you created room blocks for your guests, made your seating chart for the reception, or ordered your thank you cards? Have you found your something blue, created a wedding website for your guests, or planned your bachelorette and/or bachelor parties? There's so much to do. If you do it little by little, it doesn't feel so overwhelming.

Catch up on your thank-you note writing.

There's nothing quite like receiving a hand-written thank-you. Sending notes to your parents, wedding party, and vendors to thank them for being so flexible and supportive during this time will go a long way. If you've started receiving wedding presents already, its a good time to get a head start on writing your thank you notes. Now more than ever, its nice to let people know you're thinking of them.

Hone your skills as mixologists.

A popular wedding trend now is to have your own special "his" and "hers" cocktails. When deciding on your bar package for your venue, these drinks will stand out as menu specials to show the couples creativity and unique personalities. Now is the perfect time to play mixologist at home to come up with creative and fun cocktails for you and your guests to enjoy. Once you come up with your top two you can come up with clever names to entertain your guests. Just another way to add personal touches to your wedding.

Relax and enjoy just being engaged.

Wedding planning can be exhausting and overwhelming. You should enjoy just being engaged. How fun is it to say fiancé? It's such a sexy word. This time will fly by. Now that you're home together all day everyday for months, its nice to just appreciate one another without focusing on a pressure-ridden to-do list. Continue getting to know one another, soak in these blissful months, or years, of your engagement. Like you're engagement, it'll be over before you know it. It's like the vacation that's never long enough. Before you know it you'll be married and beginning a whole new chapter together.

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Congratulations to all of you beautiful couples! I'm so happy for you. Enjoy the ride. I wish you the very best as a new wed couple to be. Please feel free to reach out with questions.

X,

Jess