WEDDING season may be upon us but this year there are no church bells ringing out or champagne glasses being clinked. The global pandemic has meant the Government has banned all weddings here indefinitely – and the global lockdown is affecting engaged couples all over the world.
Those affected include Princess Beatrice, who has halted plans to marry fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi on May 29.
A month into the national crisis, how are couples coping with rearranging their big day – and dealing with the stress?
Here, four brides tell JOELY CHILCOTT how they are faring.
Victoria & Elliot: Postponed to April 2021
COUNCIL worker Victoria Andrews, 25, lives in Droylsden, Gtr Manchester, with her fiancé Elliot Hall, 26, who is furloughed from his job at a wholesaler’s, and their two-year-old son Henry. They have had to postpone their July wedding because Victoria, who is in the vulnerable category, has been told she must self-isolate for at least 12 weeks. She says:
“MAKING the decision to cancel our wedding was devastating, but I knew I couldn’t risk my health – and maybe even my life – to tie the knot.
“I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease ten years ago and it is managed with powerful immuno-suppressant drugs.
“This means I’m classed as extremely vulnerable, and I am one of the 1.5million people who received a Government letter saying to stay at home for 12 weeks.
“When I received that letter I knew there was no way our wedding could go ahead. Elliot and I got engaged in 2018 after he proposed to me at the top of Liverpool Cathedral, and our big day was booked for July 4 this year.
“We had invited 150 guests to the venue, Bolholt Country Park Hotel in Bury. Elliot’s stag trip to Tenerife and my hen trip to Mallorca in early May had been arranged, as had our honeymoon to Spain.
“Even as the coronavirus crisis worsened in early March, I still didn’t think our wedding would be affected.
“But being told to shield, and the whole country being put into lockdown, brought home just how serious this was.
“I realised I just couldn’t risk my health. Also, my nanna, who I love dearly, is 79 and vulnerable, so I couldn’t place her in danger too.
“Elliot and I made the heart-breaking decision to cancel at the end of March.
“We then had a stressful week trying to rebook everything, competing for dates with other couples who had also cancelled.
“Eventually, we re-scheduled for April 2 next year. Fortunately, our suppliers have been fantastic and not charged us for moving dates.
“My wedding dress is hidden away in our house, and it’s hard to think I won’t get to wear it for almost a year.
“But people are losing their lives to this virus and I don’t want to be one of them.”
Hannah & Graeme: Wedding date now May 2021
HANNAH WILLIS and her fiance Graeme Dobie, 35, who both work in higher education, were set to marry on May 20 at Lake Como, Italy. With two grandparents in their nineties, and a newborn baby, in their wedding party, the couple chose to cancel and have lost more than £3,800 on flights and deposits. Hannah, 29, says:
“ON March 8, Lombardy was quarantined and we’d decided the week before to postpone things.
I took some convincing. Graeme’s reasoning was that if we postponed early and stopped hoping for the best, we’d be able to get a 2021 date without lots of other couples wanting the same date.
“With how things have unfolded, I’m so glad we did. We chose to get married in Italy because we both love it there and it’s very romantic. We only have 22 guests so we’d paid for everything for them.
“Our wedding planner, Sally at Wedding Box, has been fantastic, so supportive and helpful, which has eased a lot of the headache.
“Of course, we were upset to begin with but people have lost their lives. Moving our wedding 12 months along isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things.
“Our wedding is at a little villa on Lake Como. We’re going to a small local restaurant for our wedding meal and spending a few days in Rome afterwards as a “minimoon”.
“That whole region relies on tourism and wedding seasons and everyone there is so warm and friendly.
“It’s such a wonderful area, that’s seen a lot of hardship, so we can’t wait to celebrate there next year.
“For the restaurant to feed us all on our new wedding date, it needs to survive as a business for another 12 months, and that’s a real worry.
“Considering we spent five years planning our wedding, delaying it was gutting. But we’ve got the rest of our lives together, and waiting one more year to be husband and wife won’t seem like a big deal in 40 years.”
Sam & Dan: Hopes for October
PRIMARY school teacher Sam Kitching and account manager Dan Marshall, from Worcester, were due to get married on May 23 in a civil ceremony at Cider Mill Barns in Pebworth. Despite postponing their big day, the couple, both 33, have managed to celebrate virtually with friends. Sam says:
“WE considered cancelling our wedding when there was first talk of 12 weeks’ isolation for vulnerable people, as it would have meant my dad and potentially Dan’s mum, as well as grandparents being unable to make it.
“The decision to cancel was taken out of our hands when the Government announced the ban on weddings. This was a good thing for us, as it meant our venue may be more willing to rearrange – and they have been fantastic.
“The most stressful part has been trying to find a date that suits everybody and that is available.
“We didn’t want to postpone until next year and put our plans to start a family on hold any further, so we were really keen to rearrange for 2020 and I wanted it to fit around school holidays.
“Choice was limited and we had to go with a Sunday in October. We were also notified that we will need to give notice of marriage again, as it will have expired by then.
“We then set about contacting all our suppliers. They have also been brilliant and really accommodating. The hen and stag do’s have been cancelled, but Dan had a virtual stag do with his friends on April 11.
“Partners were invited, too, and on the night it was five couples and his brother. We all had to dress up. We dressed as Mario and Luigi. Then there were two Tiger Kings (Joe Exotic from the Netflix series), a nurse, a cat and other random costumes.
“During the day, six of the stags changed their Facebook profile pictures to a photo of Dan and each one said: “Ten likes = one shot.”
“Some of the photos received 70+ likes, so the drinking was a challenge! James, Dan’s brother, then did a This Is Your Life with old photos, we had quizzes, the Mr And Mrs game and the keepy uppy challenge with loo roll. It was fun, although the hangover the next day was not so great.
“As for money, we haven’t worked out exactly what we have lost but it might be about £500. It has definitely taken the fun out of planning the wedding.
“We are still concerned our new date in October might also not go ahead and, until we hear more, we aren’t doing any more on the wedding.”
Jennifer & Stuart: No new date yet
YOUTH support worker Jennifer Sullivan and her fiancé Stuart Ingram, a 30-year-old presentation manager, from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, were set to fly to Orlando to get married at Disneyworld on March 16. Their wedding and flights were cancelled just four days before the big day. Jennifer, 28, says:
“WE both love Disney and I’ve always wanted to go to one of the parks. We’d planned to have the wedding there, then make the most of the rides and create memories to last a lifetime. So it’s been a complete nightmare. I cried every single day for four days after it happened.
“Stuart proposed when we were on holiday in California in 2018 and we’ve spent two years organising the big day that was going to be such a happy occasion.
“The wedding cost us around £20,000 and, while we’ll get most of our money back, we’ve decided we can’t ask family to pay to fly to America again so we can’t now have the Disney wedding we had dreamed of.
“I had decorations specially made with the date on and my bridesmaids are younger relatives, including my daughter Evie, who is nine.
“They will have outgrown their dresses by the time we get a new date.
“My mum was in the air flying to Orlando when US President Donald Trump announced he was locking their borders to UK travellers. My stepdad, his partner, my sister and my niece were already there and had to fly home.
“We both feel so responsible, even though it’s not our fault.
“We’re trying to be stoical about it. None of us have the virus, thank goodness, but while Stuart wants to rebook and get married, a bit of me feels I’ve had enough of it all.
“The thought of going back to square one and starting all over again is heartbreaking. But once the tears subsided, we both agreed at least it will make for an interesting best man’s speech.”
