Why I canceled my wedding as coronavirus spread
One of our engagement pics (Christina Farr and Jarred Colli)
Christina Farr
After a year of planning, I made the decision last week to cancel my wedding.
When the news started surfacing about a flu-like illness, my fiancé and I remained cautiously optimistic that the virus wouldn’t spread across the globe and to San Francisco, where we live. Even through February and early March, as the first reports surfaced about the rise of cases in the U.S., we naively hoped that we could go ahead with our nuptials but with reduced attendance.
But once the CDC issued guidelines advising against gatherings of more than 50 people, we immediately looked at each other and we just knew. It was time to call the whole thing off.
Zoom wedding?
Dismantling a wedding is no joke. If you’ve done it before for any reason, I empathize. In our case, we had some help. We had hired a wedding planner, and immediately arranged to get on the phone with her to come up with a game plan. Once we had a minute to breathe and shoot out an email to our guests, the three of us started emailing vendors to let them know that our plans had changed.
The first question we asked ourselves was whether the cancellation would be temporary. Would we pick another date? And if so, when?
When we started reaching out to our vendors, they seemed eager to work with us in the future so they wouldn’t lose our business. We’re hoping to postpone, rather than cancel altogether. It’s a huge hit to the business of our baker and florist, too, as all these spring weddings are now off. New Orleans, where we’re getting married, is a big hotspot for hospitality and tourism.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing, though. One