Today I wanted to talk to you more about what has been happening over the past few months regarding the wedding. I get so many questions about the wedding from followers, friends, and family. And to be honest with you, it’s extremely stressful. While I can understand a lot of people are purely curious and have good intentions, as you can probably imagine for me it is kinda a touchy subject at the moment.
So much is still unknown about our wedding due to the state of the world right now, which is super disappointing. But I wanted to fill you all in on what I know at the moment and what direction we are going in.Â
The Wedding
I wish I could say, “here it what we know” but honestly I have as much information as you probably do – which is essentially nothing. All I have heard is that Disney is currently having weddings with groups of 25 and under. I am not sure of the technicalities of it – such as if receptions are happening, who is required to wear masks, etc. And to be honest, I don’t want to know nor do I care. At the end of the day, our wedding date is 9+ months away and most likely the rules will change between now and then. I also know that weddings are happening at many Disney Springs locations, however those are not weddings you would book through Disney. A lot of people are using that as an alternative right now, which I think is great.
We have not heard anything directly from Disney. The only communications we have had with them are ones we have initiated, which I will get into in a minute. The information regarding weddings on property that I have acquired has all come from my sister – who is probably much more in the loop than I am to be honest.
The little information we have gotten from Disney is that their wedding team is supposedly still furloughed. I’m not really sure to what extent that is true. Since they are having small weddings still, clearly there has to be people there running the show. And while I can empathize with those who are/were furloughed, I think it is poor management on Disney’s part to have not contacted us whatsoever – it was always us contacting them. Considering we’ve already given them thousands of dollars toward our wedding, it is somewhat concerning that there are crickets on the other end of the line. Though this is stressful, I am still confident that things will work out eventually.
Grant and I have had some discussions regarding the “what ifs” of our wedding day. Basically we’ve decided if there are more restrictions than we would like and feel comfortable with we will most likely postpone our wedding to 2022. But fingers crossed and major prayers that we do not have to do that!
Our Planning Meeting
If you’ve been reading my wedding diaries regularly, you’ll know that we had a trip to Disney planned for the end of October to have our planning session for the wedding. After emailing with Disney a few times over the past few months the chances of that meeting taking place in October are now slim. They said if they are not furloughed, it can most likely happen. However, they have no clue when they’ll be back in the office so it’s pretty much up in the air.
If the meeting isn’t able to happen in October we will end up doing it in February or March, which is completely fine. But now we have a hotel and flights booked to Orlando in October. We are nervous to cancel them because our planner could always be “un-furloughed” and the meeting could go on. But if we don’t cancel, we’ll have no reason to go down if they are still furloughed. My parents are supposed to be coming with us as well. My dad pitched that we should just go regardless to take a little vacation, but we are still deciding.
Thankfully Disney Vacation Club has lifted a lot of the cancellation policies for the moment, so we should be able to cancel with a shorter notice than usual. And with Southwest we can always cancel and get a flight credit to use for the next year. There are a lot of pros and cons for going with either decision, but regardless I think I will be happy and content.
The Bridal Shower
The bridal shower is something that I think has had the most changes (at the moment) due to Covid-19. Thankfully, since our wedding invite list was smaller anyway (under 100 people) my bridal shower list was even smaller. I only had about 30 people on my invite list for my shower, so considering not everyone is able to make it we are going to be keeping to the state standard for gatherings.
There has been a lot of hard decisions that we have needed to make, and some that we haven’t fully committed to yet one way or the other (i.e. requiring masks, determining how food will be served, etc). One thing that we have done is decided to move the location of the shower (which honestly my guests don’t even know yet, oops) to my parent’s home. This will give us much more space to spread out which will be better in the long run.
My shower is scheduled for the middle of September and is definitely happening, but we are still playing with some ideas. Regardless, I am still very excited and I think it will be a lot of fun. Thankfully our area and county has not been a “hot bed” for the virus, so we feel really confident in still being able to have it. And if friends or family feel it’s too risky to come I understand that completely and support their decision to not attend.
Dress Shopping
Another thing I wanted to mention is my plan for dress shopping. I knew when I set my bridal shower weekend I wanted to go dress shopping at that time because I wanted my best friend Gabby to be there. Since she is traveling here for the shower this is probably the only chance I’ll get to have my mom, sister, and friends together in one place to shop. I did some research on the type of gown I’m looking for and decided to shop at One Enchanted Evening (located in Zelienople for my Pittsburgh readers).
I’ve always had a good experience at OEE. I’ve purchased semi-formal and prom dresses there when I was in high school, so I am excited to shop there! I called them to check in with their Covid policies, since I knew I was going to bring at least 4 people. They are currently allowing the bride and 2 guests for their normal visits. However, they gave me the option to pay $75 for a private fitting time and I could bring up to 5 people with me.
I know it’s controversial that I had to pay (my mom, dad, and sister all thought I was an idiot) but the one thing I really wanted out of my dress shopping experience was to go with the people I love, so I thought it was worth it. Plus, when you’re paying thousands of dollars for a wedding, $75 is a drop in the bucket. But now I am excited because I can bring my mom, my sister, Gabby, plus my future sister-in-laws. I think it’ll be a ton of fun, and fingers crossed this is the only shop I need to try on at lol.
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I think that just about covers everything! Of course we’ve been doing all the shopping and DIYs for the shower, but that is for another post. If you know a Covid bride, please remember to be respectful of their privacy as well as their decisions. Instead of intruding, ask them if they want to talk about it. Please don’t drill them with questions that they don’t have the answers to, they don’t want to answer, and that they don’t want to think about. I promise, if a bride wants to vent about something she will lol.
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Jayme
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