Any March 2021 Brides?! No idea what to do ...

Congratulation on your upcoming wedding, such a shame you can't have the excitement and build up that you should be having.
If you send your invites 3 months before or 1 month before then things can change at the moment, I'm sure your family and friends will understand your limitations, whether its lowering numbers or postponing.
We had our wedding booked for May this year, then September (nievely thought all would be well by then). Ours went from original 50 guests, to 30 allowed, to no reception allowed at all....so we decided to go get married by ourselves a month ago (with our familys blessing) and are having our reception next August (we hope).
We were happy to do this but I also know other people who want the wedding the way they planned it so are going to keep postponing until they can.It will be a wonderful day whatever you decide to do.

We are end of April (responded to the thread just before) and have the same predicament - what have you decided?

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Well, the wedding coordinator at the venue has suggested "plan for the booked numbers", but I suppose she would say that as they want to be able to cater for the full amount. I was thinking of ordering the invites and getting them sent out with some kind of caveat to say "based on current situation we may have to reduce numbers" - maybe suggest not booking accommodation until after Christmas? I honestly don't know! What about you, Dee?

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That sounds like a lovely idea! You've now got plenty of time to plan the reception for next August and hopefully things will be better by then. Congratulations to you both!

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Hello!

I'm in a similar situation - due to get married in May 2021, with circa 100 guests. I think we will probably do the same as you: send invitations a few months before but with a caveat. People will understand! It's all just so frustrating... we just have to remain optimistic but also realistic!!

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Thanks for your reply! What about all the other services ... are you waiting or starting to book? Things like photographer, cake, rings etc?

In a way I don't mind if we do have to reduce numbers as we would save some money and could put that towards a honeymoon ... we shall have to see!

View quoted message We’ve booked all the main suppliers; but we’re making sure to ask them what their policy is if we are forced to postpone. I don’t bother asking about cancellation as none of them will offer a refund for a cancellation... they have a business to run and have to earn a living too. But at least with postponements the majority of them have said they will be flexible and move to the new date. It’s in their interests too.

View quoted message Hi,


Our venue has allowed us book for 15 guests and provided transparency on the impact of increased attendees should restrictions lift (we have the venue to ourselves and should restrictions lift we can add the them later. Booking for 15 means should we decide not to go ahead we only loose 25% x 15 people). They’ve also put into our contract that if restrictions drop below 15 we can reschedule for a later date with no time cap.
Re comms to attendees - in our save the dates we’ve said something along the lines that “ because of covid please make sure your accommodation/ flights are refundable. We’ll keep you informed via our website. Invites will be sent closer to the time when hopefully we know more.
This was the right decision for us as I wanted to make sure we had a chance to have all our friends and family there but asking people to book refundable transportation etc means we won’t feel beholden if restrictions don’t lift.
Hopefully that helps. Good luck!
As at today we’ve paid venue deposits, booked the registrar, gotten our appointment to notify marriage and ordered my bridesmaids dresses. So excited!

View quoted message I should also say that if restrictions lift we wanted to ensure everyone had booked in. Didn’t want a situation where flights/rooms go through the roof as soon as Boris makes an announcement ??

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That sounds great Dee! Sensible re the non-refundable too. Our hotel offered a discounted rate to our guests but it was still through the roof and that was pre-Covid. Now however, rooms are non-refundable. There are other hotels in the area so guests can choose to book there if they prefer.

I think I'm going to order invites today and send with a caveat note re Covid etc ...

View quoted message Sounds good. Honestly, covid is testing us all.

Don't worry about univiting people, I think everyone's well aware of the covid situation and will understand. My wedding was supposed to be April. Then September. Now April next year. I'm carrying on with my usual guests and will univite or not depending on the rules at the time.

What a difference 2 days makes ?. So we are going into lockdown.
How are we feeling about this?
I keep thinking the longer (closer to Xmas) lockdown is the more likely restrictions will lift in spring 2021.... am I being naive?
I just bought my wedding dress (due to try on for size start of December for fittings in Feb and end of March/beginning of April). It all feels so random. I keep reminding myself to focus on what I can control but it’s easier said than done.

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I don't think any of us can truly predict what Spring 2021 will look like. As you said - what a difference 2 days makes....things can change so quickly. I've written to my MP about the severe wedding restrictions. It might not bring much but makes me feel like at least I'm trying to improve things for us brides to be (and our OHs!) and the wedding industry! I'm still planning to re-assess a couple of months before our wedding (supposed to be May 2021) and decide then whether to postpone or not.

View quoted message I might have to join you on emailing my MP ahead of them discussing wedding restrictions in parliament on 9th Nov.


We’ve already decided that as long as you can get married we will do (so we can get on with life) so for now I’m gonna keep EVERYTHING crossed .

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Perhaps you can send e-invites so it's more efficient and any change of plans can be easily altered? As for hotel bookings, maybe try looking for nearby Airbnbs? They may be more understanding and flexible.

Also, given the current situation, I'm sure many guests would be understanding if they get uninvited

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I think I'm the only one but I feel quite optimistic about April/May time next year.

Cases seem to have stabilised and I'm hoping this lockdown will work wonders.. The news about the vaccine also seems positive.

Let's hope I'm right!

View quoted message Keeping everything crossed and continuing life as if all will be back to normal.

This forum is making me feel a bit more optimistic about our wedding! We’re getting married May 2021 and think have decided to reassess in January. Lots of talk about vaccines in December so fingers crossed by spring things will be ok. We’ve sent our save the dates so everyone knows when and where we are getting married. Think we will wait till January and send the rest of the invites out then!

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Oh really? Let us know what they say. Which part of the UK are you in?

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Good - I hope so too. Hopefully the lockdown will help reduce the rates.

Just received my invites and RSVP cards - they look SO good! Excited to send them out.

View quoted message It was the response I expected - that they have to take into account the numbers of infections when deciding on the restrictions and that they hope to lift them soon etc etc (note he said number of infections, not deaths.... )


There’s a debate scheduled in parliament this evening in response to a petition to have a flexible calculation of how many are permitted at a wedding, based on the venue’s capacity. Even if it doesn’t lead to much, at least the issue is getting some parliamentary air time - finally! It wouldn’t help us much as we’d planned to have guests at maximum capacity of our venue, but at least it would be progress in the right direction.

Just listened to the parliamentary debates on wedding attendee numbers. Oddly though no decisions were made either way I still feel optimistic because there were no firm “no” - what did everyone else think?

View quoted message I thought the MPs who debated it did raise great points and stand up for the wedding/events industry. The problem is that the Minister for Small Businesses whom they were addressing (Paul Scully) took nothing on board, gave some wishy washy answer about viruses spreading more easily at weddings since it’s friends and family coming together, compared to in a restaurant where not everyone knows each other etc etc (he didn’t base this on *any* scientific evidence or analysis....).
He didn’t address so many points, including the fact that venues were offering to do ANYTHING to make their venues “Covid compliant” in order to host weddings. No roadmap, nothing. But the individual MPs did put up a good fight.

If I’m honest, I’m not sure it will lead to much in the near future... they just had to debate it because of the petition reaching over 100k signatures. But at least it’s raised the profile of the issue.

Also with the vaccine news yesterday, things are looking up!

Hi all,

I just read through this page of the forum and found such optimism, I had to comment. My partner and I are due to marry in May 2021, currently we're at a fork in the road where we're asking ourselves do we hold tight and see how it pans out, or do we postpone. Reading the comments, I realise we're not alone in these difficult decisions , I'd like to send best wishes to everyone and hope you all have the wedding day you deserve ❤ Matt.

View quoted message What a lovely message Matt. Yes, I also find it comforting to know we’re not alone in this tough time. Sending you and your partner best wishes too. ?

Congratulations on your wedding - completely appreciate how you feel. We were due to get married in May 2020, and then moved it to August 2020 (naively thinking things would be a bit more normal by then) and then finally to early June 2021.

It's got to a point now with so many postponements that we've decided we're just going to go ahead and get married in June - no matter the restrictions and the numbers. I do think at some point it's worth sitting down with your fiance and deciding if you'd go ahead regardless and then do a bigger reception afterwards - and at what guest number you'd compromise on. For us, my fiancee is happy to get married with 50 people at the venue we've booked - but any less than that and he wants to get married in his parent's garden.

I agree with everyone above - it's so difficult to predict and it is very frustrating that planning and getting excited is so difficult. It does look like things are looking up with the vaccine news so fingers crossed 2021 will be better and the guest count will go up. Sending everyone best wishes.

We were due to get married mid April 2021 (already rescheduled from 2020) and have just postponed again to April 2022.
I don’t think the vaccine will be distributed by this Spring enough to make people feel safe and normal, so we’re just not risking it.
If you’re thinking of rearranging then you should do it ASAP - we got the last Saturday available for spring 2022 at our venue!! Good luck xx

Hi? like others have said, it's so nice to read the messages on here and to know that us spring 21 couples aren't alone. We're just so confused about what to do for our May 21 wedding, whether to plough on regardless or whether to bite the bullet and postpone to 2022 as you have Juniper. At least now you can plan with the reassurance that covid will be long gone by then!
I'm hoping to speak to our venue and see what they say but for now I did find this guide that I was sent by Bridebook really helpful... nobody knows what the future will hold obviously but this seemed like good guesswork to me x

Hi all, we are getting married on 27th March 2021, how are all the other March brides feeling? obviously we know that we won't be able to have the 100 guests we had planned, but 15 is just ridiculous! we are reallllllly hoping for 30 by the end of March what is everyone thinking, are people feeling confident or are you resigning yourself to 15?

I’m 24th April 2021. I’m still hopeful that some restrictions will lift in Feb so that from March we can have weddings of c.50 people.



However, I’ve mentally prepared myself for 15 people only and will have a lovely day (full wedding) regardless.