From Proposal to Wedding Day-when your wedding day doesn’t happen

A few weeks ago all of New Jersey was shook up by the forces of nature. In light of many people misplaced, injured, physically and emotionally drained-wedding planning and many other festivities (including Halloween) took a back seat to organizing help drives, seeking generators and keeping track of odd and even numbers on one’s license plate.

Many couples scheduled to marry on or around the day when Sandy struck have been left without a place to marry. Even weddings at the venues that were not affected had a hard time with transportation, deliveries and accommodating out of town guests, since all of the operating New Jersey hotels were fully booked and trying to accommodate misplaced people.

It is a lot to handle physically and emotionally, when your big day- dreamed of, designed and planned for many months, sometimes years, all of a sudden-does not happen.

Luckily, many wedding vendors will try to accommodate couples at a later time, but be prepared to settle for an off-date (Friday, Sunday, or even a weekday) when the dates do not fill up as fast. Call and email your vendors right away, and be patient since obviously they will be stretched thin.

A lot of items that you have purchased will still be usable, even those with pre- printed dates on them (you can always add a second date and have two wedding dates and great stories to tell). Do not spend extra money on printing new invitations. Use one of the event invitation websites to generate evites to inform all guests of a new date and venue.

Your photographer, videographer, DJ, hair and make up artist should cooperate with your new date and recommend their replacements if they are not available.

It gets more tricky with a florist or a baker if they have already purchased and produced your products. These vendors will more likely charge you for at least their expenses and time spent, but you might be able to get a credit towards future purchase.

If you are one of the lucky few that purchased wedding insurance, (like www.wedsafe.com) you will be able to recoup some of your deposit monies.

And keep on thininking the mantra that no matter what happens, and in spite of it all, you are getting married to your best friend and nothing, not even 100 mph winds will stop you from saying your “I-dos” and being together for the rest of your lives.

In my next blog let’s talk about incorporating holidays in to your wedding theme. In the meantime – happy wedding planning!