Top 4 Tips for Planning A Wedding During Coronavirus with Help From A Top Wedding Planner
Top 4 Tips for Planning A Wedding During Coronavirus with Help From A Top Wedding Planner
COVID-19 has sidelined and wrecked—graduations, celebrations, conferences, you name the event and it’s been affected. Yet, with all of the events that have been postponed or cancelled, few have caused more headaches and crushed dreams like the weddings. Yes, the graduations and other events are heartbreaking as well—any milestone event would be. But listen, there’s just something about weddings and what they represent, that makes this all the more traumatic. Maybe it’s because I’ve had a wedding, so I know the emotional turmoil you go through at even the tiniest moments, so throwing a pandemic on top of that—listen, it would’ve taken me out!
The average engaged couple spends 13-18 months planning a wedding, but the time can be longer for destination weddings or more extravagant affairs. My wedding fits right into that average, with our destination wedding being planned in 17 months. When I look back on our day, a lot of things stick out, but when I think of my planner I’m consistently filled with nothing but gratitude. She was such an amazing support system, and truly breathed life into my ideas for the day. Paula-Faith Ewers is owner and lead planner at Truly Ewers Events, currently based out of Atlanta, but does weddings all over—including her second base in Dallas. We chose her as our planner because she was a college friend of my husband, but she’s also been in the business for 7 years so I felt confident she knew her shit. Having previously worked in hospitality in Orlando—at Universal of all places, she has a great understanding of customer service, and creating relationships with people. Having done over 100 events at this point in her career, she’s seen it all—but a pandemic is a first.
On the business side of things, Paula’s been fortunate to find herself staying afloat during all of this. Something she attributes to the fact that as a business owner, you’ve got to position yourself well in the event something does happen with your clients and you need to reimburse them funds or what have you. She also shared that now with both of her parents having passed over to paradise, the idea of needing to have your ducks in a row—because going home isn’t an option, is paramount. Though her business is surviving at the moment, she explained to me that the anxiety for her brides is understandably at peak levels. “It’s hard for them to understand having this dream of this wedding and then having to almost let it go, because you don’t know if its ever going to happen,” she said. One of her brides even expressed doubt over even carrying on with the wedding as planned, in favor of a courthouse wedding. This pains Paula, because now for that bride—and others like her, it’s like the joy has been stripped away from wedding planning. And what’s left is just a burden layered with uncertainty.
Weeks ago, before Texas issued their shutdown orders, Paula was in Dallas putting the finishing touches on a wedding slated for the weekend. Everyone was on edge because a shut down was looming, but no mandates yet put in place so everyone carried on. Days before the wedding however, the governor issued that mandate—the wedding was now cancelled. Remember earlier when I said this mess would’ve taken me out? I cannot fathom being in New Orleans (where my wedding was held) having to tell guests to not step on that plane. Running around the city trying to secure refunds, answers, and sanity. Bless these brides that have had this happen, because that’s unthinkable. Paula’s couple eventually got their bearings and then had to worry about how to proceed. Which seems to be the biggest headache for all those planning weddings right now. Those slated for May and June have mostly been postponed because—What if? The late summer ones like in August and those heading into fall remain at a stalemate. Should brides send out those invitations and proceed like normal, or should they be overly cautious and just pick a new date in general? For this, Paula has given us her top 4 tips on how brides should navigate this uncertainty, and hopefully not lose their minds in the mean time.
1.) Book a planner: No this isn’t some kind of subliminal ad, its just good advice! Lots can be made about whether or not to have a planner, and many choose to go without one, but with a pandemic on your hands you’re gonna need not only someone who knows how the industry has responded to COVID. But also an advocate that will fight for you if need be, and make sure that you’re not going to be shit out of luck, should another wave of closures and mass lockdowns happen.
2.) Read your contracts: Re-read that…it doesn’t say have your planner read them, it says you! Of course your planner will read all of your contracts, but it’s important you as the person footing the bill for this event, is fully in the know about what your contracts entail. Such as where your vendors stand on their practices and precautions in a COVID world, and what the repercussions will be in regards to said contract should another lockdown be imminent.
3.) Understand your event insurance: Insurance is an interesting thing to have during this time. Your venue and your caterer are the two businesses that you really need to pay attention to, in terms of whether or not they’ll be able to refund your money should they close and no longer be able to provide you with service. Essentially what you want is to ask if your vendors have insurance— so you know if they’re protected from a business standpoint. But you also want to protect what you’ve invested in your vendors. So should they go out of business for whatever reason, the hopes will be that you can recover some sort of funds. For those currently in the planning process and do have insurance, as well as your vendors, you should look into whether or not you’ll incur transfer fees—in the event you need to change your date. This may not be covered with your type of insurance though, so you have to do some good research.
4.) Work on your relationship with your fiancé: This is a huge stressor and test for your relationship, and it’s important that you both maintain the understanding about why you want to get married in the first place. It isn’t for the wedding; it’s for the marriage. So get back to the basics and really just support each other throughout this situation. Working through this is a great precursor to the future hardships you will eventually go through during your marriage, and you’ll be all the better because of the work you put in now.
Bonus: Ladies, you can do this! As my shero Glennon Doyle says, “This is hard, but we can do hard things.” I know you could’ve never imagined something like this disrupting this day you’ve been dreaming about for so long, but please know it can still happen—if that’s what you want. If you wanna say screw it all and go marry your baby downtown, then DO IT. If you wanna stay the course, picking a new date, and reshaping a new dream day, then DO THAT. Make your love the priority, and figure out which way you both want to go, to honor the relationship you have, regardless of what’s happening out here in the world. If there’s one thing this pandemic has shown us, it’s that we need a lot more love out here. So hold on to what you have, for as long as you can.
P.S. But if you wanna leave them after lockdown ends, its all good cause your wedding was cancelled and the universe gave you an out. She says you’re welcome.
