Your London Wedding - May/June 2020 (Issue 71)

A CHANGE OF PLAN From managing anxiety to cancellations and postponements, London’s experts answer your questions on weddings affected by COVID-19 FUTURE PROOFING Our wedding is booked for summer, 2021 and, given the current situation, I want to support my chosen venues and suppliers in the interim. What can I do to help? Tess says: How kind of you to think about your suppliers. Indeed, we could all benefit from supporting each other at the moment. Here are some ideas: ❤ Social media shoutouts are always so lovely and help us promote our venues. We adore being tagged in your photos on Instagram and also love seeing inspiration photos of what you are planning for your day. ❤ For any new clients, it helps enormously when they’re flexible with dates. We try to accommodate everyone but, if you’re flexible on dates, you’ll have a lot more to choose from. ❤ Share your suppliers with the community. We love seeing and meeting new people and always love working with new suppliers in our venues. Everyone brings something different to the table. ❤ Share well-being tips with other brides – we’re all in this together so it’s important to reach out and look after each other too! ❤ Write a review or send a positive message. You could share how we’ve done so far; we really appreciate the support and kind words go a really, really long way, especially at a time like this. Meet the experts: Tess Hillier is the Senior Wedding and Private Events Coordinator for Enable Leisure & Culture – the organisation behind Battersea Park’s fabulous venues. Enable Leisure & Culture | www.enablelc.org @maxturnerphoto WE’LL MEET AGAIN Our wedding date is set for this July and we’re wondering whether we should postpone now or sit it out and hope for the best? Nina says: Do you really need to postpone? Think carefully about this, as it is a huge decision and something that could be quite costly and stressful. Take a look at your wedding date and the really important VIP guests, such as family and close friends. Will they all be able to make it without any issues if you don’t change the date?  If you do decide to postpone, then the single most important factor is whether you have wedding insurance. If so, check what you’re covered for. Work with your venue closely and look at what possible dates you could move your wedding to. Once you’ve decided on a new date, work with the rest of your suppliers to ensure they can make it too.  Once you’ve got a new date, communicate with your guests as soon as possible. Last, keep calm. Remember, this is temporary and we’re all in it together. The main thing is that, no matter what, you’ll marry the one you love, just on a different day than you originally planned. Meet the experts: Nina Beer is a London-based wedding coordinator and owner of planning service Occasion Queens. Occasion Queens | www.occasionqueens.com 94