Ideas for writing a Change the Date Card

Weddings are big events that take a long time (and effort) to plan. Every couple would like their special day to be perfect. But what if a worldwide pandemic happens and you decide to postpone rather than have a slimmed down and socially distanced version of your dream day? It is an extremely hard decision and to make it even harder postponing a wedding involves almost as much work as organizing it! Cancelling the venue, the band, the flowers etc. – the last thing you will have time for is to explain to every guest why you are cancelling and what the new plan is. The best solution is to design a Change the Date card and send it out to all your guests. They have probably been wondering what is going to happen anyway!

What information should be included?

The short answer is as much as possible. The more information you can give your guests the less questions they will have, and you can concentrate on re-organizing everything. Obviously, there are other reasons than just COVID-19 for postponing a wedding and you absolutely do not have to specify your reason but let them know as much of the logistics – date, time, location. And if you have a new date – do not forget the RSVP!

How should the card look?

The design is obviously up to you. If you have a new date, then there is a lot to be said for keeping it in the same style as the original invitation. Just add a line at the top that makes it clear that you are getting married at a new date, for example, “Change of Date”, “Change of Plan”, “We have postponed” or “Save the New Date” and then give your guests all the information they need for the new date and hope that they can make it – just like you did in your original invitation.

Template for a Change of Date card when only the date has changed

“Change of Plan. Our special day has been postponed. It is now taking place on 07.11.2020 – everything else remains the same! We hope you can make the new date and cannot wait to celebrate with you!”

“New date – same plan. Due to unforeseen circumstances we had to change our wedding date but that is all that has changed. We hope to celebrate with all of you on the 7th November 2020 instead. Please let us know if you can make it.”

Suggestions for postponing without a new date

If you are postponing your wedding but have not got a new date you could write something like this:

We are still getting hitched – just at a later date. As soon as we have a new date, we will let you know. We hope you will still be able to celebrate with us! Until then, please stay safe.

Or try this:

Change of Plan. We regret to have to inform you that we had to postpone our wedding. We are in the process of rescheduling and will send you our new date soon. Thank you for understanding.

Dear family and friends. We regret to inform you that our wedding has been postponed. We will send you a new Save the Date in due course and apologize for any inconvenience caused

Postponing with a bit of humour

The one thing we all need at the moment is something that makes us smile. And although having to postpone a wedding is certainly no laughing matter there is nothing wrong with a little bit of humour.

We still do – but not without you. Due to the current limitations we have decided to postpone our wedding rather than slim down the guest list. As soon as we can celebrate with all of you, we will let you know.

We still do but not that far apart. We have decided to wait for the new normal to look a bit more like the old normal before we get hitched. We will send you a new Save the Date as soon as we can

or use an old saying like

Good things come to those who wait – so we have decided to wait a bit longer. Or at least until we can celebrate with all of you.

No virus is going to stop us from getting married – but it might delay us a bit.. Due to the current pandemic we have decided to postpone our wedding. Please save our new date. We cannot wait to celebrate with all of you!

Mark Twain once said “To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with” and we would like the full value of joy on our wedding day. We have therefore decided to postpone it until we can divide it with all of you and not just a selected few. New invites will follow in due course!

And a bottle of Corona features on lot of COVID-19 related postponements and cancellations…

Short postponement examples

There are numerous reasons why couples have to postpone their big day and not everyone wants to tell their guests exactly why and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. You can just send your guests a card telling them that you are postponing

Due to unforeseen circumstances we had to postpone our wedding. Please save our new date

With a heavy heart we had to take the decision to postpone our wedding. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and will let you know as soon as we have a new date

New Date. The wedding of Paul and Louise has been moved to October, 10th 2020. Formal invitation to follow

How can we postpone a wedding and still make it sound romantic?

“Love is patient. We cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together, but we would like to celebrate our special day with all of you, so we have decided to postpone our wedding until we can do that.“

The best thing to hold on to in life is each other – and we look forward to spending the rest of our life together. But we would like to celebrate the beginning of our marriage with all of you and have therefore taken the difficult decision to postpone. We will let you know about our new date in due course.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance. Corinthians 13:7. We are hopeful that we will be able to celebrate our wedding with all of you in the near future. But until that is possible, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone our wedding. Please stay safe and we will let you know as soon as we have decided on a new date

However you decide to phrase your Change the Date card bear in mind that your guest will totally understand. They will understand how difficult this decision has been and just be pleased to be able to celebrate this wonderful occasion with you and hopefully in slightly more “normal” circumstances than is possible at the moment.

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