Wedding Wednesday Q&A: When Is It Too Late To Postpone Your Wedding?

Q: We’re getting married in the summer, but we’re worried it won’t be safe by then. While things are looking good, we’re nervous vaccinations will be held up or another surge could be coming. And we’ve already decided that if we can’t do the wedding safely, we’re going to postpone. But, when is it too late to postpone the wedding?

Great question! And to be honest, it’s the question on many couple’s minds.

Because there are a lot of summer weddings hoping to happen. Some are couples who had to postpone from 2020. And others are newly engaged couples who are hoping vaccinations will be far enough along to allow for a “normal” wedding by then.

I’m super hopeful that the state of the country and world will be much better and many people will have been vaccinated by the summer.

But the truth is that we don’t know what things will be like in the coming months.

We don’t know if another surge is coming for us. Europe is certainly facing one right now.

And while it looks like we’ll have enough vaccine supply, the logistics aren’t necessarily moving fast enough.

So, your worry is understandable.

I definitely think things will be much better in 2021, but whether it will be by summer is hard to say.

So, if you had to postpone, when is it too late to postpone your wedding? Or in other words, when do you have to make that call?

There isn’t a date per se because it depends on your wedding and the situation.

You could postpone a wedding the day before if you had to like in an emergency situation. But that’s not ideal. And you’d rather control the postponement rather than the postponement control you.

So, I’d say in general, you’d want to make the decision to postpone at least 30 days before your wedding.

This allows you time to make postponement changes and gives your guests time to make changes on their end as well.

But your guests might require more or less time.

If all your guests are traveling for a destination wedding, you’d want to make that decision earlier to give people more time to adjust travel plans. But, if your guests are all local and just family, you could potentially shorten that timeframe.

And it’s not just your guests you’re concerned about.

You also need to take into account your wedding vendors and their contracts.

Most vendors will have the final payment due within a month of the wedding. So postponing before that time not only gives them time to make adjustments, but can allow for the final payment to be pushed closer to the new wedding date.

But every vendor’s payment schedules will be a little different. So you’ll need to check each of your contracts to make sure you’re accounting for their specific timelines.

And your vendors may also have specific policies around postponements and when those need to take place. So, make sure you read the fine print carefully.

Lastly, don’t forget you’ll also want to take into account the wedding itself.

The larger and more complicated the wedding is, the more time you’re going to want to give yourself.

Because the postponement (and all the adjustments you need to make) will take more time.

The simpler and smaller the wedding, the easier it will be to postpone.

So, while 30 days might be the general benchmark to start from, make sure you take into account your wedding, guests and vendors to pinpoint the right decision date for you.

Then once you have that date, make a note of it in your calendar.

So that you know that this is the date you’ll want to make a decision by.

Because things are constantly changing, you’ll need to make your decision based on the information you have at that time.

But the good news is that things are looking more and more hopeful. It’s just a matter of if things are good enough by your wedding date.

Now, I know that trying to figure this stuff out on your own is hard. So if you’re looking for more support, please consider becoming a Passport to Joy member.

You’ll not only have guidance through the entire wedding planning process, but access to a personal advisor as well. And that can make all the difference in the world, especially now. Click here to learn more.