Wedding Planning Tips - The Lockdown Edition

Planning a wedding can be hard at the best of times, but with the virus lockdown and general uncertainty around weddings making it even trickier, it’s difficult to know where to start.
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 To help, we’ve called upon our friends and experts in the wedding industry to provide their best wedding planning tips and advice for planning a wedding during the pandemic. Whether you’re planning a wedding for 2021 or postponing your wedding, you’re bound to find something to help amongst these little gems of wisdom.

1. Your Wedding Will be Perfect, No Matter When it Takes Place

Remember: your wedding will be perfect no matter when it takes place. That’s the wonderfully calming advice from Rachel and Lara at Festival Events and Planning. The reasons you’re getting married, the commitment you’re making to each other and the words you want to say will stay the same if it’s tomorrow, next year or in ten years when your wedding takes place. And the stresses and strains, ups and downs of planning a wedding will just fade away when you get to the actual day. Great advice whether you’re postponing a wedding or thinking of delaying your wedding to avoid any limited availability issues.  ​

2. Have a ‘Lockdown list’ to Tackle the Jobs You’ve Been Putting Off

We might all be confined to our homes right now, but there’s always a silver lining and that might just be that you can take the time to tick off some of those jobs you’ve been putting off. Not only will you get some serious ‘wed-min’ tasks done you’ll also get a mood boost knowing you’ve kicked procrastination to the curb and tackled some of the niggling ‘to dos’. 

This sound advice comes from Andrea Swift, expert wedding planner at Fabulous Together and the big ones she sees couples dally over are choosing the ceremony music, choosing a theme for and deciding on table names and reaching an agreement on your first dance. Now’s the time folks...it’s not like your other half can avoid things by sneaking off the pub or the gym now is it!

3. Get Inspired, Get Productive

Kate Beavis from Magpie Wedding suggests using lockdown time to get inspired but doing so in a productive way that will make things easier when life (and planning a wedding) starts to return to normal. There’s so much great content being produced at the moment, it’s great excuse to add to your boards on Pinterest, read wedding blogs, browse the online wedding planning directories and binge those Insta weddings. All great sources of wedding inspiration but how do you avoid this time being spent just looking at ideas and not actually doing any planning? 

The trick, says Kate is to take immediate action when you see something you like. Don’t just pin it or jump onto the next thing, look to see who the suppliers are, follow the links and note them down. Once you’ve found them, drop them a message, follow them online or send an enquiry. Whilst you might not be ready to book at that stage, at least you’ll have an easy way of contacting them when you are and can get the ball rolling with any questions you might have. ​​

4. If you Love It, Book It. 

Luckily, most suppliers are doing everything they can to accommodate and support couples who are having to switch dates. This reassuring if you’re facing postponing a wedding. However, if you’re planning a wedding for 2021 or even 2022 you’re going to be up against more limited availability with suppliers than normal. Debbie from Debbie Gillespie  Cake Design recommends that if you see a supplier you know you want for your wedding to get them booked as soon as you possibly can. 

This will minimise your chances of missing out. Do check in advance however if they’re offering postponements without any extra charges, whilst you obviously hope you’ll not have to postpone, it’s better to know just in case. ​​

5. Get Organised, stay prepared

It might not be the most glamorous element of planning a wedding but getting some sort of organisation in place for your wedding preparations is a great use of lockdown time. This could be as simple as a spreadsheet or a fancy-schmancy wedding planning folder. Even if you’re not the organised type taking a bit of time out to put everything in one place and in an order where you can find the info you need easily will pay dividends for your stress levels nearer the big day. 

Try to include contact info for suppliers, to-dos, where you’re up to with tasks or decisions, payment details and deadlines. You’ll undoubtedly need these in the run up to your wedding but you’ll also have a ready-made list of people to contact should you need to postpone.  Trust us, future you will thank you for it….

​So there you go. Top wedding planning tips for lockdown include: 

1. Remember your wedding will be perfect no matter the date
   
2. Crack on with those jobs you’ve been putting off
   
3. Get inspired but in a useful way
   
4. If you love it, book it
   
5. Get organised and stay prepared
   

And last but not least, stay safe, stay sane and stay on top of your planning! 

Links, Info and Thank-Yous

Big thanks to:
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Lara & Rachel at Festival Events & Planning
Virtual and Wedding Fairs, Magazine, Wedding Planning and much, much more

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Andrea Fabulous Together
Luxury Wedding Planners in Cheshire and across the North West 

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Kate Beavis at Magpie Wedding
Blog, Shows, Magazine and Directory

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Debbie at Debbie Gillespie Cake Design
Award Winning Yorkshire Wedding Cakes

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