We have a family wedding that was rescheduled to July 3 this year. At this point, I am very doubtful this event will happen mostly because almost all the guests will be traveling to the venue from OOS. Unless quarantine things change, this could be an issue. They also planned to have about 150 people attend.
And add to that, the parents of the bride and groom do not live in the US.
We will just wait and see!
DD lease will not be renewed as owners of the condo want to sell. BF is in another state now, and she is applying for jobs around there. She is making it known that her follow-through on moving is based on getting some hardware on her left hand. So we shall see how quickly he moves. She wants to move big with this lease end rather than find another place with her current job/location. So we are waiting and seeing how things unfold. They have been to some weddings, and a few parties will occur this year where the wedding went on in 2020 with few attendees.
DS1 and DIL are going with Thanksgiving weekend for the wedding/party. Canāt decide whether thatās a good weekend or a bad one. Wonāt people want to stay home with family this year as so many of us missed that this year? What do yāall think?
Our DDs wedding was Memorial Day weekend 2018. But it was not ON the holiday.
I would think Thanksgiving weekend would be fine as long as the event isnāt ON Thanksgiving.
Iām a fan of pick your date and time, and invite folks. Itās their decision whether to attend or not. You wonāt be able to please every guest no matter what date you choose.
Enjoy the planning!
Thanksgiving weekend is a great time to have a wedding! Not a great time to celebrate anniversaries 
I got married Nov 1989 and we usually end up celebrating our dating anniversary in April instead.
I would decline a thanksgiving 2021 wedding unless it was a CLOSE family member. I havenāt spent a holiday with family since Christmas 2019. God and vaccine willing, wild horses will not keep me away from a family thanksgiving 2021
But many, many people saw their family during the holidays this year so they may think very differently than I do.
DD/SIL just attended a GA wedding that was the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving. That worked out well for many.
IMHO you donāt want to do a Thanksgiving weekend wedding unless many locals and/or just close family and they are on board with it.
I wouldnāt do it on a Thanksgiving weekend. It is time with family and itās a bit unfair to ask friends to make a choice. I think the weekend before or after would be better.
After Thanksgiving, people are getting ready for Christmas. Other DD just attended a Dec out of state wedding - many were from that area or region and it was a lovely event - and planned ahead. IDK how many didnāt attend usual Thanksgiving events in 2020 due to Covid. It was good DD/BF were able to fly and no Covid related disruptions - DD was in the wedding party.
A lot of people take the week of Thanksgiving off so I agree I would think the weekend before Thanksgiving would be better. Ideally I would like to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my family.
Holiday weddings in general can be problematic. I remember a Christmas wedding I was invited to (it was the week after Christmas). I think that scheduling the wedding shortly after the holiday is better than before.
Work tends to ramp up right before the holiday (whatever it is), and decline after. People try to clear their decks pre-holiday.
I was married Thanksgiving weekend many, many years ago 
I spent Thanksgiving with my family and my husband with his, then his family and our friends flew to my hometown where we were married. This year might be different because of the Covid limitations of last year, but to be honest I agree with the āset the dateā and those that can come will, and the others will be missed. Iād send save the dates early though because youāll want out-of-town guests to be able to book travel well in advance.
Travel on a holiday weekend can be busy and very expensive. Something to consider if there will be out of town guests.
Had a long FaceTime this weekend with my D and her fiance re wedding plans. Itās three and a half months away. They have a Plan 1 and a Plan B. Plan A is basically just immediate family (parents, siblings, no grandparents aunts or uncles or cousins) and the officiant (under current rules, 10 people!) It will be in a beautifully decorated church, and there will be a very nice dinner afterwards in a private room at a restaurant a block from the church. Everyone has to wear masks and the dinner cannot last longer than 90 minutes. Plan B goes up to 25 people (same venues), depending on regulations. Decision on size will be in mid-March, but we did decide that whatever happens, it will be a microwedding. This has gone from 75 to 50 to 25 to 10. With all the problems rolling out the vaccine and quarantine rules etc., it may end up being a blowout small dinner party.
So Iām planning something that will be 25 max. I will have nice personalized cloth face masks in their wedding colors (sage green, periwinkle, white) and hand sanitizer (with personalized labels) in little organza bags as favors. I spend way too much time on Etsy.
Since we have no room in the count for musicians, we are making a wedding playlist. I will ask friends and family who normally would have been invited to suggest a song for the list so that when it plays, they will be there in spirit.
They got engaged on Dec. 29, 2019. Who would have imagined that we would still be dealing with this? I feel sorry for those who planned large and elaborate events for 2020, postponed them, and still may not be able to do what they planned in the foreseeable future.
I had avoided reading through the first thread on weddings because I didnāt want to jinx what I had hoped would be an engagement of DS1 to his girlfriend of over 3 years. But he finally popped the question in November and now are starting wedding planning. We are beyond thrilled - love the girl and are so happy that she is joining our family. They just picked a venue; they had hoped for October of 2022 (they wanted to be sure that covid is not an issue for travel, etc) but their desired location was booked for Saturdays so it will be 11/12/22. They were here this week and were talking about what needs to be done next. It seems there is a lot of delayed weddings due to covid so even nearly two years out, things are booking up.
What have you all done about helping with the cost of the wedding? They both have very well paying jobs and it looks like they will pay some and her family will pay some part as well. We have also offered to take care of the rehearsal dinner and contribute something to wedding expenses (amount TBD) as well. I know everyone is different, but was just curious.
I need to go back to the first thread and read throughā¦I am somewhat clueless about the whole process as itās the first wedding Iāve helped with.
Since the wedding is local to us but not to the brideās family, they want our help with logistics on some things. SO - any advice? As in - what do you know now that you wish youād known then about wedding planning?
@my2sunz Our groomās family rented an Air Bnb which accomodated the parents, brothers/partners and two cousins. Considering covid, a great advantage was not depending on restaurants. They had a good time together and hosted a small gathering there the night before, a sort of bachelor evening, with some local friends of my now SIL. We did our own thing, that night.
Get a Day of Coordinator. A good one. I think D1 read many reviews before choosing. This gal was an angel.
The offer was made to contribute to costs, but D1 and then FSIL wanted to pay it all themselves. (They had changed the venue from a high end hotel in a local destination area, so costs totally realigned.) We ended up paying for flowers, the violinists. I offered to have the bridesmaids stay in our home, but D1 found an amazing Air Bnb for them all (her, two BMs, a partner, all from out of town.) They enjoyed the treat, the chance to catch up, got ready there, etc. After the wedding, D1 and SIL stayed there that night and the next.
The thing I found, and others, is you do have to pare down the life long dreams about weddings. I think most of us who saw kids get married started worried, but easily transitioned to : this is about their happiness and commitment. Smaller can be just as amazing and significant.
And covid policies around you will dictate a lot. Our venue, caterer, and the DoC stayed on top of that, with us.
Best wishes.
My son got married first. We paid for the rehearsal dinner and gave them a set amount of money for the wedding which they could keep whatever they had leftover. My daughter got married in 2020. I paid for her dress and shoes and gave them a set amount (actually twice what I gave my son). Since Dās 150 person wedding was cancelled due to Covid and she ended up getting married with just immediate family in our backyard, they got to keep quite a bit of the money I gave them.
We gave D a budget (which happened to be my share of my dadās estate). Her now-Hās family asked to help pay for more than just the rehearsal dinner, since it is actually the groomās family that pays for weddings in their culture. They ended paying for half the reception. D & her now-H chose to pay for certain things, such as a a party bus for the bridal party (hotel to church to site for pictures to reception to hotel). We ended up covering half the reception, the dress, flowers, cake, dj & photographer. They didnāt use the whole budget, and we didnāt give them the difference.
The wedding & reception were in a major city about 45 minutes from our house, and there were lots of out of town guests. D reserved a block of rooms at two hotels ā¦ one option was more budget friendly than the other, but they were right by each other. D had a wedding website that listed all the relevant information.
We did not offer a bus between hotel/church/venue, which was fine in this particular case. Sometimes it is wise to budget that in, if Uber/Lyft isnāt handy in your area.
Thanks! It is really interesting to me to see the different ways that families handle this. I know thereās no right or wrong, but I like seeing the different options. Iām leaning towards doing the rehearsal dinner then giving a set amount of money to be applied towards the day (or whatever!). The wedding and reception are being held at the same site, which is only about 10 minutes from where we live; brideās family live about 1,000 miles away. So we are helping with the logistics probably more than we otherwise would if her family was also local.
For S1 we hosted the rehearsal dinner, organized the hotel block and provided welcome boxes, and at the last minute provided bus transportation from the Manhattan hotel to the wedding at the Bronx Zoo. For S2, we originally planned to split all wedding expenses 50/50 with the brideās family. However, their wedding was cancelled due to COVID and we hosted their micro wedding in our yard this past August. While we may have picked up some incidental expenses, that, too, was split 50/50. We rescheduled the celebration for March 2021, but I fear that too will be cancelled. We renegotiated the original contract with the venue to provide for a full refund if cancelled due to Covid restrictions and both we and the brideās parents have decided to gift the money to the kids.