I've been shooting weddings now for over 15 years and while the majority of weddings go according to plan I've seen a few of my brides and grooms overcome different forms of adversity. I really feel for any of you that have had to put your wedding plans on hold recently.

Emma and Niall were due to get married on 25th April 2020.  However due to the outbreak of Coronavirus they, like so many brides and grooms, have been forced to reschedule their wedding. I spoke to Emma about rescheduling and how she's been able to keep it together.

"Looks like I'm going to be a bride to be for a little while longer.  Difficult decision has been made to postpone our wedding but I definitely think it's the right one with so much anxiety and uncertainty over the current situation!"

How did you come to the decision to postpone your wedding?

Well the decision was partly taken out of our hands. I'm not going to lie the thought of postponing it was definitely playing at the back of our minds, as the situation was continuing to get much worse but we kind of wanted to bury our head in the sand and hope for the best! We were travelling to Dubai and Maldives for our honeymoon, and got the call to say that this had been cancelled. We took this as a sign and made the decision to contact our hotel to discuss the option of postponing the wedding. Turns out that she had planned to contact us that day, to ask us to consider a new date so we definitely felt that we made the right decision!

What has been the most disappointing part of having to change your date?

The date which we were supposed to be getting married was 12 years exactly since we started to go out - so this date has always been very special to us! It just looks like we are going to have to celebrate 2 anniversaries each year now!

Is there anything that’s helping you remain optimistic?

Yes, of course! We want our family and friends to be healthy and happy, and to be here to celebrate our special day with us next year! Our wedding day will come and we know that it will be worth the wait, also to be able to enjoy the run up (which is just as exciting) without the worry of the virus hanging over everyone.

Were there any financial implications to rescheduling?

Thankfully not, we were so lucky to have the most amazing vendors. We were able to secure everyone for our new date which is fantastic!

Did you have Wedding Insurance?

No, we didn't have wedding insurance. This was very worrying, especially as it was only 6 weeks before the wedding some things were paid off in full!

What was the most difficult part of having to reschedule your plans?

Honestly, changing our wedding date wasn't as stressful as I had first thought, in fact we ended up changing twice! We initially moved our date from April to September, but this was still causing me a bit of anxiety. We also wanted a spring time wedding and felt we were making quite a hasty decision, so we made the call to push the wedding back a full year until April 2021. Again, all of our vendors were totally understanding and caused no issue in the second change of date. We were able to plan our new date within an hour!

What advice would you give to any other couples in a similar situation?

Firstly, don’t panic! I am a firm believer that everything will always work out in the end! Contact your hotel to find out available dates and just work from there - write a list of your vendors and contact each one and tick of the dates. We will all get our special day, when things are better and brighter, everyone will be there to celebrate twice as hard! Just keep looking forward to that, we still have each other at the end of the day and that is what really matters ️

Have you any plans for your original date?

Yes of course, 25th April is a special date already for us as it will be 12 year anniversary, so we will have our own celebrations which will potentially be a BBQ for 2 followed by a few bottles of wine. Sure what more could a girl want? Lol

Thanks to Emma for sharing her story and offering advice. She also spent her birthday in isolation and is due a big celebration when it comes!