Are short engagements a thing of the past?
In a post-lockdown landscape where available dates and suppliers are in high demand, Katie Bletcher asks if it’s still possible to plan a wedding within a year? Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic world. When couples got engaged then budget was about the only consideration for setting their date. Could they afford what they wanted, or would they need time to save? That was then but now as the industry has to cope with rescheduling postponed weddings, finding a date for a new booking can prove difficult. So what happens if you’re newly engaged and still want to plan your wedding within a year? Is it still possible or should you bank on a longer engagement? “Most couples don’t want to wait,” advises wedding planner Laura Devine of Devine Bride. “Lockdown seems to have had a massive impact on couples now taking life/weddings by the horns! They are shopping around for availability and compromising on season and day of the week to get the wedding they want – or switching up location entirely. They don’t want to delay any life plans post-wedding like buying a house, moving country, getting a dog or starting a family.” To-be-weds Adam Smyth and Jessica Moran got engaged in August and soon discovered planning might be more difficult than they imagined. “We decided on a May wedding as spring is my favourite time of year and we just didn’t want to wait another whole year,” explains Jessica. “Our first priority was securing a venue as we found out we were pretty late in the day according to the wedding calendar. We were definitely worried that we wouldn’t be able to get anywhere as so many venues and suppliers had shut due to covid, and it was hard 16 | YOUR Scottish WEDDING.CO.UK
to find up-to-date information online.” The couple knew they were looking at a guestlist of around 100 but found many venues they liked only accommodated under 50. Undeterred, they got creative and were delighted to discover they could pitch a sailcloth marquee in the grounds of their chosen venue Burgie House. And they’re The Wedding Guru Oskar not alone in wanting a big celebration. After the beautiful micro-weddings in 2020 and 21, planner Oskar Gilchrist-Grodnicki - The Wedding Guru Oskar says there’s now a real appetite for weddings on a larger scale, even if some couples want to keep things more intimate still.
“Throughout lockdown, I booked mostly 100+ guest weddings for 2022 and 2023,”
KEEP AN OPEN MIND So how exactly can you pull off your big wedding within a tight timeframe in the current climate? Flexibility is key. According to Oskar, there is always a way to make it work. “If you’ve not
