wedding planner

Wedding Rescheduling Guide for COVID-19 Pandemic

We know you have so many questions and worries. We put together a Rescheduling Guide for our April & May 2020 Couples….then we realized this could help so many other Couples as well. Here are our suggestions on how to go about rescheduling, if you need it.

Step 1: Gather all of your vendor contracts in one place. We love using Google Drive for this. Read through and highlight the rescheduling sections of your contracts so that you are up to date. If you have a wedding planner or coordinator make sure they have a copy of your contracts and/or share your Google Drive folder with them.

Step 2: Contact your venue(s). Venues are being inundated with calls and emails in regards to rescheduling. They are doing their best to take each case on a first come first serve basis. Email (for written proof if needed) your venue(s) to get an understanding of what dates they currently have available and if they are holding dates for potential rescheduling. I strongly recommend that you inquire about and consider NON-Saturday options if you are wanting to have your wedding in 2020. 

Step 3: Contact your vendors. For ease I suggest you send your vendors 1 email, CCing all of them, with the Subject being “Your Last Names Rescheduling”. The more we can consolidate emails to vendors the better. Let them know you are rescheduling (or considering it) and that you are looking for their upcoming availability. We love Google Sheets for this. Put all of the Dates your venue has offered you on one axis and the vendor categories on the other axis. All of the Vendors can fill in their individual columns and you can align their availability quickly. 

Google Sheets Example (ask each vendor to put an “X” on the dates they are available): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SBvA8H5Uz1sLhpJTPdf3IgtZle_0N-DpjIzhJeuH3K0/edit?usp=sharing

Step 4: Pick a date and notify your vendors IN WRITING that you have chosen a new date. If that vendor is not available, you will likely not get your deposit back. In that case, you can take that up with that specific vendor, but please note the majority of your vendors are small businesses and they are under great financial stress during this uncertain time (as I know are you!).

Step 5: Have a glass of wine…haha, but really make sure you are taking care of yourself and your relationship. This is a stressful time for us all. You and your fiance need to have time together where the wedding is not discussed. Take care of your relationship first and your wedding second. 

Also, here is a great article from one of my old professors at Northwestern on how to keep your relationship strong if you are both stuck at home together for an extended period of time: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/loving-bravely/202003/under-one-roof-home-together-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic

Sending you lots of love and good health, 

Maggie Heely, Owner

Weekend Wedding Warrior

Owner, Maggie Heely, was honored to be asked to do a LIVE Instagram feed helping to answer all your Wedding Rescheduling…

Posted by Weekend Wedding Warrior, LLC on Wednesday, April 1, 2020

What does Warrior mean to me?! It’s about being REAL!

Let’s face it, Weekend Wedding Warrior is an odd name for a wedding company. Most companies use the owners name or make up something soft and pretty using the word “elegant” in their company title. I named this company to explain exactly what we do. We are Wedding Warriors that work your Wedding Weekend! It has nothing to do with myself (owner, Maggie Heely) or my ego and it has everything to do with the service we provide families.

Once at a bridal show, a groom said to me “why warrior? what does that mean?” I froze for a second. I had been giving the same schpeel for 3 hours to newly engaged couples and his question caught me off guard!

Well, Mr. Groom, here’s my answer: Being a Weekend Wedding Warrior means going to battle for every single one of the couples and families that we work for. It’s doing the dirty, behind-the-scenes work that the average person doesn’t want to do (let alone recognize that it’s needed to be done). It has nothing to do with being pretty, though we will make sure your wedding is pretty, and it has everything to do with being REAL.
In real life, DJ’s don’t download the correct version of the first dance song and we are finding it on YouTube to connect to the speaker system.
In real life, those beautifully crafted boutonnieres fall apart after the 4th hug and we are super-gluing the stem back on.
In real life, a gown’s train gets stepped on and your bustle breaks and we are on our knees pinning/sewing it so you can dance the night away.
In real life, that perfectly white dress will get something spilled on it and we will have the Tide stick and the white fabric chalk to cover it up.
In real life, you will forget the wedding rings in your room because you are so excited about getting married, but don’t worry, we’ve made sure the Best Man already has them.
In real life, your mash potato bar collapses and we rebuild it!
In real life, there are terrible storms, even on wedding days, and the power goes out so we light every candle we can find and you get married by candle-light!

Life happens and it is not always pretty. We are the SHIELD (the Warrior Shield) that protects you from all of those unexpected, but inevitable moments on your wedding day.

I love beautiful photos and staged wedding photo shoots and creative-minds with pretty and delicate ideas on fancy blogs, but those aren’t real. Being a Weekend Wedding Warrior means making sure every detail is handled so that you can focus on what is really REAL…getting married and committing yourself to the love of your life.