The brides of 2020 have been thrown the mother of all curveballs that no Jennifer Lopez movie could have predicted.
Wait. No. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Source: GiPHY
This year has been rough on everyone - people with kids, small business owners, people who love brunch - and of course, brides. Weddings cancelled globally has not just affected us (yes, I am one) but the whole industry - from catering and dress-making to wedding planners and sad gift registries. We speak with brides whose weddings were cancelled on what they plan to do now. Still going ahead? Eloping? Fucking the whole thing off and buying a house instead?
For myself, I had a big fat Jewish wedding planned, with 200+ people from home and abroad. Four weeks out, when I'd painstakingly written out every place card, my run sheet to the minute (do you not have a run sheet with events going from 4:03pm - 4:17pm? Okay weirdo) and my crash dieting was at its limit, we had to cancel.
It was absolutely crushing. I howled with tears all weekend, but to be honest, the anxiety over choosing whether or not to cancel (this was early days) was sooo much worse. In the end, of course, the decision would have been made for us anyway. We decided we still wanted to get married (I feel a big part of this was that my husband had already paid to get the wedding date inscribed on his ring, no refunds) in some shape or form. We tried to plan a small garden ceremony, but when that was axed as well, we went the only place we couldn't get kicked out - our own living room. With 300 people tuning in from all over the world, it was not my dream, but it was most certainly a lockdown highlight. (What's that? We got in the paper and on the radio with Hughesy & Ed because of it? Guys, who brought that up, you know I hate the limelight...)
Our friends and family were wonderful, with gifts and salutations sent to still make us feel special on the day despite everything. We see ourselves as married (even if not legally yet) and hope to still have our big day when we are allowed. I personally refuse to plan anything now in a pandemic because the anxiety of impending doom gives me night sweats, but hope we can do it eventually, even if kids now come beforehand (sacrilege!) But how do our other brides feel?
Like this, really. Source: GiPHY
We will go ahead no matter what!
'Our wedding was supposed to be today. We decided to postpone, as we have three children and they would not have been allowed to come. We are having a low key wedding (as we are not overly fancy people) on the rooftop of a hotel in Bundoora, and the reception at a bowls club. We postponed until February 2021. We will then go ahead no matter what!' Christine, 38
To have a wedding or not?
'We were meant to have a big wedding in October 2020, which we were forced to cancel in Melbourne. Currently, our wedding is re-booked in for March 2021, but not knowing what the new year will bring is making it hard to mentally commit to anything. I have slated the first week of January as crunch time as I will want to get invites out within six weeks (if not longer) of the wedding day. However, now that we have saved all the money for the wedding it is a bit hard to imagine spending it all on one day, so we are also considering the sensible path of using it to upsize our home instead. But throwing the most epic end of Covid party would be pretty amazing (as well as the getting married part, I guess!)' Steph, 31
Let him handle it
'Our wedding is planned for March 2021, so we are just waiting. My fiance did nearly all the planning (groomzilla!) so we are just hoping it can still go ahead and will make a decision closer to the day.' Simone, 30
Brides of Aus right now. Source: GiPHY
The 24-hour cancellation
'Well...where do I start? We spent nearly two years planning and saving for our dream day, then lost our wedding less than 24 hours before I was due to walk down the aisle. The PM pulled out the 4m2 on the 20th of March. I got a call about 5pm that day from my venue saying they have to postpone our wedding. The next hour was a complete blur of frantic phone calls, tears and a complete meltdown. We did end up eloping on our day in a 10-minute ceremony in the garden of our venue. We have no photos and only had our immediate family, and have now postponed the big day for the third time. As long as everything goes to some sort of plan, our wedding will only be 18 months later. But honestly, completely over it. I came so close and it now feels so far.' Shez, 42
Two postponed weddings
'Our wedding was originally planned for April (my partner and I wanted a quick engagement as we only got engaged in Feb 2020). That has now turned into a year-long engagement and two postponed weddings (tried for November as well). We are now hoping for Feb 2021, luckily for me, I didn't have to make to many adjustments. I've also decided not to send invitations until January, because I don't want to have to uninvite people or tell the venue it's 40 people, then end up being at Covid-normal.' Chloe, 30
We had everything booked and ready to go
'We were originally planned for April 2020 at Wandin Park Estate, we had everything booked and ready to go! We had no choice but to cancel, as we were at the start of the lockdown where the PM had said no weddings. We have now re-booked everyone and everything for 17th April 2021. Our vendors have been AMAZING! I’m wary of getting too excited about our wedding as we really want as 'normal' wedding ( as possible) with dancing and mingling! It’s been a shit year for everyone, hasn’t it?!' Jessica, 30
Safe to say a lot of us are just over it. Source: GiPHY
Rolling with it
'We didn’t have a set date and now have no set plan, literally - we will just do the wedding we want, I guess when we can and can be bothered organising it. We verrrrry loosely talked about doing New Year’s Eve, but that idea was parked before it had taken much shape.' Josie, 33
Fed up with postponing
'I was supposed to get married on April 4th, 2020 and had to postpone just two weeks out. We have now postponed a total of three times! October 2020 was our next date, then January 2021. We are fed up with postponing, so now we’ve pushed it right back to March 2022.' Nicole, 30
My new date feels just right
'My original date was the 2nd of May 2020. We cancelled and moved to December 2020. Cancelled again, hoping the third time is a charm for March 30 2021. This all sucks, but for a different perspective - on my original date, it snowed at my venue. My December date always felt off and too close to Christmas. Now, my new date just feels right and so maybe it was all for the best. My vendors have all been amazing and I would recommend every single one of them.' Elly, 28
Let's all cross our fingers for these new dates - the silver lining is, we didn't get a wedding day, we got a wedding year baby!
It is all about me. Source: GiPHY
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