Q: My fiancx is from Sydney and I am from San Francisco, so we’re planning a wedding in Hawaii. We’re a few weeks from locking in our venue and date and sending invitations for late October. We haven’t put down any deposits or planned any travel.
The idea of asking our family and friends to make expensive travel plans in the near future is making me a bit ill. This is especially true for our parents, aunts and uncles, who are older and, theoretically, more at risk.
Is it ridiculous to consider postponing until 2021? There are enough logistical issues in planning this wedding without having to worry about flight cancellations and island-wide quarantines. How are other people dealing with the looming threat? I mean, I’m not prepping for doomsday, but this is making wedding planning feel extra complicated and stressful.
—Anon
Here is the thing: your wedding is in October. That’s too far in advance to know what’s going to happen one way or another. So I’d say, check your contracts and live your life. That said, this is becoming a question across the board for people getting married in 2020. What if you’re getting married in April in Northern California, where we may be facing social isolation measures at some point… or in Japan in March where lockdowns have already hit… everyone who’s getting married in the very near future (or planning on attending a wedding as a guest) is dealing with some variation of these questions.
While we plan to start collecting resources as this epidemic unfolds, we wanted to create a place where y’all could give advice… and figure out what your next steps are.
—Meg
What precautions are you taking during wedding planning with the spread of Coronavirus as an imminent threat? Will this epidemic effect the way you plan? We want to know how APW readers are handling this in real time. APW will continue to cover this topic on the site and update our readers with information on planning during an epidemic.
