The COVID-19 crisis has affected the world in many ways. For couples who were planning their weddings in the next weeks and months, it has tossed all the balls in the air with no way of catching them all neatly While you’re mulling over the “Will we? Can we? Should we?” questions, you can be sure your guests are wondering the same things too. Now, it’s more important than ever to focus on maintaining communication with guests during COVID-19.
So how do you do that? What’s the best way to keep your guests in the loop, especially when it seems like the loop keeps changing shape every time you blink? We’ve got some ideas!
Why Should Guests Know What’s Going On?
The thing to realize is that your guests were invited to share in on this special day because you love them. They’re your friends and family, and they love you as much as you love them. They’re concerned about what’s going on in your life, and you can trust that they’re wondering not only how this will affect you, but how it may affect them. They may be out-of-town guests who have already booked travel/paid for rooms, and they’re wondering what you’re going to do so they know what they need to do.
Having clear communication with your guests helps you, too—it prevents you from getting lots of questions you’re maybe not in the best frame of mind to answer right now. Lack of communication can elicit confusion, fear, and downright panic, so be preemptive and maintain communication with them as best you can.
How Can I Maintain Communication During COVID-19?
Thankfully, one of the ‘perks’ of living in this day and age is our access to communication methods. You can get information to your guests in a quick and easy-to-disseminate way, and you can do so with a few simple pushes of the button.
Obviously, if you have a wedding website, this is the perfect format to let guests know the ins and outs of all the planning; whether you’re resizing, rescheduling, or just canceling altogether until more stable planning can occur. Update your wedding website as often as you can, even if it’s just a quick, “We’re still here!” to keep them feeling connected to you.
If you don’t have a wedding site (or even if you do), you still have plenty of ways you can get in touch with your guests. Email them, text them, share on your social media sites. You can even make personal phone calls. If you are planning 1:1 communication and your guest list is extensive ask your parents and siblings to help make calls. However you do it, they’ll be thankful for the information and thankful for the contact.
The reality is that things are changing in our world at a rapid pace. What is okay for a community one day is not the next. Your guests are aware of that, and they know life is crazy. A good rule of thumb is to go 24-48 hours between mass communications when you make changes so that you’re not inundating them with constant updates. Their lives are probably crazy too, so hearing from you is good—hearing from you every other hour? Possibly too much. Be concise and to the point and be POSITIVE! This virus may be changing things, but there are some things it can’t touch—like the fact that you and the love of your life will get to be together forever, regardless!
Most importantly, remember this is a hectic and emotional time for all of us. Your friends and family love you, and so does your fiancé. Be sure that when talking with any of them, particularly your intended, you do so with oodles of grace. Try to make lemonade out of these lemons; humor helps and understanding we’re all in this together does too. Use tools like Canva or PicMonkey to design little updates for your friends and family to give you something to work on as that will help you feel like you still have some control in this topsy-turvy world.
Just letting your guests know you love them and look forward to seeing them when you can will mean the world to them.
You can also read our other helpful pandemic posts here:
Planning a Wedding During a Pandemic
Step-by-Step Guide to Rescheduling Your Wedding
Please note that this post was written in April 2020, in this everchanging situation new guidelines may be in place. Please check all local and national rules and mandates in terms of holding your wedding.
