Why 2021 Could Be Challenging for Wedding Couples

You and your fiancé are planners, so when you got engaged last year, you decided you weren't going to rush things. You were going to take your time and plan a 2021 wedding.

Thank goodness, you thought, as you watched your friends planning their 2020 wedding sweat out what to do as the COVID-19 problem dragged from March, into April, and now May. You've heard Governor Raimondo in Rhode Island hint at allowing 50-person weddings in very late summer, and Governor Baker isn't even ready to talk about the subject yet. You feel lucky that you planned that 2021 wedding.

But should you?

Here's what 2021 couples might not be thinking about: all of those couples that were booked for 2020 are, one by one, quietly gobbling up all of the prime 2021 dates. With those dates will inevitably go the desirable vendors – the DJ's, the photographers, the venues, all of these entities are trying their best to work through uncharted waters to satisfy their customers and contracts, but where does that leave 2021 couples?

If you have always been planning a 2021 wedding, but you haven't yet booked your venue and many of your vendors, you may be finding yourself in competition not only with other wedding couples for 2021, but also all of the 2020 couples. There's never been a time where two years' worth of couples have been hustling for the same dates.

The bottom line? If the COVID-19 pandemic plays itself out the way many experts believe it will, if a majority of 2020 weddings are postponed, be the perfect storm for a 2021 wedding boom.