We’re feeling the empathy big time - for our clients as well as the brides and grooms the world over. Thousands of weddings in Scotland are being postponed or cancelled due to the Coronavirus emergency and did you ever imagine, in your wildest nightmares, that you would have to include a global pandemic on your list of “things I must have a plan B for”? No? Neither did we. And as Coronavirus cases ramp up in the UK, the bare minimum you can hope for is that your life is only disrupted, not put at risk.
If you were getting married in summer 2020, after the first inevitable question you type into Google - “what should I do if our wedding is postponed due to Covid-19?” - the next question will almost certainly be, “how do I deal with the disappointment?”
First of all it’s ok to be sad, it’s ok to be angry and frustrated (at nothing and nobody in particular). These feelings are perfectly valid and need to run their course. Grab yourself a glass of wine and a tub of your favourite ice cream and work through it. This whole situation is unthinkable and awful, not least because life was actually meant to be so exciting this year! A wedding is one of the biggest days of your whole life so strong feelings towards its cancellation are inevitable.
So in these unprecedented times, we thought we’d try and put a positive spin on the fact that you have had to postpone your wedding day.
Wish us luck but here we go.
Your Love Will Last a Lifetime
This is ultimately a speed bump in “The Story of You”. Your wedding day is a celebration of your life together, right? So it stands to reason that by the time your new wedding date comes around, you’ll have even more love to celebrate!
You would have lived through an historic moment, you would have survived it and - with luck - your relationship will have become even stronger for it. Yes, it’s unimaginably stressful now, but in the end you will look back at this horrific time and hopefully see it as something that has brought you closer together. You will have a newfound appreciation of freedom, the everyday mundane and ultimately your relationship will go from strength to strength. To quote Roy T. Bennett, the author of “The Light in The Heart”
“Keep Going. Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.”
The date you get married, doesn’t really matter
A wedding is a celebration, and, let’s face it, no one will really feel like celebrating just now. When every sneeze is met with a collective, suspicious / terrified glare from the people in the surrounding area, any event would be a strenuous affair with everyone on edge. Leaving aside the disappointment that you have to wait longer for the day you’ve been planning for years, the fact that the date has moved (hopefully) has no other effect. If the date does have a special significance, why not consider a wedding in lockdown? You can get married from the comfort of your own home to make it official, then celebrate with your nearest and dearest when all of this blows over (and you only need to be wearing wedding attire from the waist up!) Now there’s a story!
Check out this couple who did just that with an added surprise twist to their big day.
You get more time
More time to plan the finer details, more time to save up for a couple of special “extras” you couldn’t afford this year, more time to be excited, more time to look forward to walking down the aisle and going on your honeymoon - because at the end of the day, when the festivities are over, it signals the end to you living on that wedding high.
And more time to just take a break from all of the planning if you need it. Take the time to pamper yourselves, or work out together (to keep active, look and feel even better on that beach when you finally go on your honeymoon).
Looking at it in the most optimistic way, you’ve been given the gift of time! Use it well.
People will make even more of an effort
Think about it, with people under house arrest for such a long stretch of time, everyone will be DESPERATE for a celebration when this is all over. A chance to see family and friends whom they haven’t seen since this unprecedented time came upon us; finally an opportunity to get out of the pj’s and into a fancy frock and a newfound appreciation for weddings in general - let’s face it, you do get a bit tired of the wedding season once you’ve been to 20 weddings in one year but post Covid-19, guests will be delighted to be a part of the big day!
You have done THE RIGHT THING
By postponing your wedding you have, without exaggeration, safeguarded the lives of all of your guests and their friends and family. If you could quantify what that number is, you’d be blown away (we’ve done the maths for a wedding of 100 people - for every 1 guest, they have a family of - on average - 3 people and an average of 40 (yes 40!) friends, per person - so that is a potential impact of over 4300 people PER 100 GUESTS! You don’t want that on your conscience.
When it comes round to your original wedding date, don’t just let it go by uncelebrated however - do something special. Get dressed up, Zoom with your family and friends, buy in a bottle (or two) of champagne and recreate the wedding dinner you were going to have. Find a way to make lemonade from the lemons we’ve all been given.
Let’s be pragmatic about this at a time when pragmatism is unquestionably hard to come by. Your wedding has not been ruined, it has been postponed. You’ve been given the opportunity to continue to be excited about the prospect of getting married and when it happens, it will mean so much more to you and your guests.
It’s horrible, unimaginably stressful and disappointing but you WILL get through this and - when you finally say “I do” - it will feel so much more special. It may be corny (but we need more corny-ness in our lives just now) but the one thing Coronovirus can improve and make even stronger, is your love for each other.
You will get through this. You will have the best day of your life. You will get everything you wanted and maybe more. Just hold tight, stay safe and keep planning!
And from all of us here at Music For Scotland, to our wonderful clients - we can’t wait to celebrate with you and provide the soundtrack to your big day.
See you soon and don’t stop smiling.