People don’t usually think about postponing their wedding.
Getting married is a pretty binary decision. It’s usually, “Yes, I do,” or, “No, I don’t.”
When Maru and I found ourselves faced with a growing amount of coronavirus evidence over the past 2 weeks, we each had a growing suspicion that our 18th of April wedding in Argentina was looking less likely by the day.
It took a while for us to get to the point where we were willing to consider the thought, “Shall we postpone?”
We ended up sitting down and asking ourselves 3 questions:
- Could we guarantee that all of our guests would be safe during our wedding?
- Could we anticipate the situation to improve significantly over the next few weeks?
- Could we ask our guests to travel two weeks ahead of time to self-isolate? (Which are the current self-isolation-upon-arrival rules in Argentina)
The answer for all of these questions was a resounding, “No!”
But we were hampered by doubts. What would this mean for our guests and their travel plans? What would this mean for all the plans we’d made with our vendors? Would people come in a year’s time?
Despite these doubts, we pushed ahead and postponed. Within a week, our decision was justified. Argentina closed all borders to foreigners, and flights from the UK and New Zealand were cancelled.
Strangely, the feeling we had after making the decision wasn’t anguish, but rather relief.
The build up to postponing was painful, but knowing we would be keeping our loved ones out of harm’s way—by not hosting a large event—gave us peace.
The pill has been a little easier to swallow due to the overwhelming support we’re received from our family and friends. Let’s just say, everyone understands the current situation.
We also took time to pause, be grateful, and think of others. As there are many families around the world experiencing life-altering pain and loss at this moment.
Finally, we chose to see the good. We didn’t postpone our wedding, we just extended our engagement.