While Coronavirus has seemingly postponed or totally changed your wedding plan, at TCB we're finding a NEW vibe to embrace, with a different perspective to offer in these changing times! These are the moments where TCB shines, pivoting to create guidance specific to the times that will save you all sorts of heartache and allow you a fresh NEW view on American Wedding culture!!  One of the main reasons to pay for wedding planning services is to save YOU from the planning panic that grips you in these absolutely unpredictable moments.

 

TCB is here to guide you with creative problem-solving solutions that make possible the once-in-a-lifetime moment, worthy of your wedding dreams.  With so many couples struggling to figure out the next steps, we thought we would get on the blog today to offer some helpful suggestions and alternatives.  Remember, these are wedding day dreams delayed, not wedding dreams forgotten!!  Now we have even more time to make your wedding all the more fabulous!

 

Let’s just say it… this sucks!!!  You’ve spent months, maybe even years, planning for your dream day and saving to make it wonderful.  And while, of course, it’s more than fair to be disappointed that things may not go according to plan – things could work out even better than originally anticipated.  So let’s reframe our thinking and find a happy new solution!

 

Next, we will list some creative approaches  to consider given these unprecedented circumstances:

 

Luxury weddings of no more than 75 have been part of European culture forever, being the predominant style of weddings held in the most beautiful locations.  At TCB we thrilled to see this intimate style spread,  for a million reasons we know couples will see why.  If keeping your date and getting married in high style is extremely important to you, you can work together with your photographer, planner, and florist to schedule a much more intimate, luxury version of your original plan.  Not only will this give you elevated, editorial level photos – it will allow for you to still experience the special moments with your most special people in an even more beautiful unique environment. 

 

Think of your wedding day as an intimate dinner party with the budget room to indulge your wildest fantasies!!  Check out some of our Lake Como-inspired styled shoot with Josh and Aleah Photography and some of Memphis’ best vendors for inspiration to see just how glam you can take it!  The British have long had a more intimate cultural approach to weddings, often going on "Holiday" to other fantasy European locations with their nearest and dearest humans and truly spoiling them with a once-in-a-lifetime every single detail considered kind of way. We think this will really be here to stay. As you scroll through these photos and think about what your original vision might allow for if paired down to the closest people in your life. 

While your heartbroken and social distancing, ditch those Coronavirus woes by deciding to go the courthouse route for ceremony instead!  Why we love this plan… you can still wear your dress, you can still have hair and makeup, you can still have your photographer come to take photos with your wedding party and family – so you still have a lot of the feel aspects of what makes a wedding day special.  Now take all that money we would’ve spent on the rest of your wedding elements and throw it into your honeymoon plans! 

 

Your wedding planner can help you find photographers to shoot your travels together as a new family in several locations throughout your stay.  If you’ve always wanted a dreamy destination wedding but couldn’t afford it, use this time to start planning the honeymoon of your dreams instead.

 

We also LOVE the idea of asking your caterer to save your catering budget for a less formal shindig later on, where you can invite all your people and share the photos of your EPIC travels and sweet court house ceremony!!

 

While our minds can be so tempted to focus on all the negative aspects of having to postpone a wedding due to unforeseen circumstances, we can choose to throw our energy into making your wedding day even more fabulous…  That big DIY project you ran out of time on?  That photobooth you didn’t have the budget for?  The custom artist who was too busy to make that piece for your sign-in book?  ALL those things are up for grabs now!!

 

Now we have the time to save for the things you wanted, but had to make the heartbreaking choice to let go of because it wasn’t in the budget.  If there were artists you wanted to commission for elements like custom maps, portraits, engagement photo book for sign-in table. Now you can save to purchase that hand-lettered signage, or amazing focal escort card wall that’s so on trend right now.

 

Everyone that you have selected as a guest for your wedding is a person that is important to you + your family and vice versa. Everyone who really loves you will be kind and accepting of your new plan, and anyone who isn’t given these circumstances can frankly save it for their mama and Jesus, (a common catch phrase of mine) cause their ugly is not your business!!

All of the vendors you have selected are most likely small businesses and please remember how challenging the legal liability issues are for your vendors. We also wish with everything that you weren’t put in this impossibly difficult position, most of us aren’t in this business to make a fortune. We are in this industry because we LOVE celebrating LOVE and taking care of people in their most tender moments.  Please also remember that every date we rebook is revenue we have lost out on in the next year.  Every small business owner you know is making tough choices right now, and we will make every effort to find a new path for you that honors you wedding wishes, but PLEASE stay kind and patient as we find this happy medium together. We know you’re heart broken and we want to make sure you feel supported in this difficult time, but with these new happy third way solutions we know you’ll find the perfect fit for your edited vision!!

No matter what, you’re still going to marry your person, and isn’t that really the point?!!? While having to let go of the original plan can be emotionally taxing, we hope that what warms your heart at the end of the day is the knowledge you’ve found YOUR person, the person who will stand by your side in the rest of life’s unforeseen challenges. Getting to grow old together is the real gift, and why should we risk the health and lives of all the other people in our lives trying to grow old with their person, if we can choose one of these awesome new plans?!?

Cheers to weddings given the time to be made even more fabulous, to the health of the people we hold dear, and to a life well lived for many happy laugh-filled years to come!!!