alpha, & delta, & omicron, oh my!

the year is 2020 and suddenly every vacation, concert, and party is cancelled. uh oh. that must mean that wedding you’ve been planning for the last 324 days and counting? also cancelled. bummer.

miami beach bride drinks champagne at the confidante hotel

the whole world seems to have frozen in its tracks. nobody knows what to do, but everyone finds solace knowing that neither does anyone else. for the first time, we can take a breath of fresh air, go for a walk, learn how to knit, read a book, finish a puzzle.

we’re allowed to do just about everything…except gather.

miami photographer captures first look at the confidante hotel in miami beach — the next thing we know, it’s 2021. there are multiple vaccines readily available, the hospitalized cases of covid-19 have gone down drastically, and people are finally beginning to get back into the swing of things. the events industry is *booming*. wedding vendors don’t know what to do with all these inquiries. statistics are showing that there have not been as many weddings scheduled in one year since *1984*.

so what does that mean for couples looking to get married this year? “should we just wait and postpone until 2023 when things settle down a bit?”, you might be asking yourself. “should we chop the guest count in half, do a backyard wedding, and call it a day?”. the option to fly to santorini to elope has always been there, so what better time than now?

allow me to state the obvious: being an engaged couple in 2022 is simply not for the faint of heart.

vibrant tropical floral bouquet miami beach wedding at the confidante hotel

the options seem endless until you feel like you’re left with no options at all. you have vendors you’ve been following on instagram for years, many of which aren’t available on your date(s). then just when you think you’ve found your favorite venue, it’s booked every friday and saturday of that one month you wanted to claim for your anniversary for years to come.

jewish wedding ceremony chuppah tropical florals the confidante hotel miami beach

then, just like that, it happens again. it’s mid-december 2021. word comes out that there’s a new variant in town and its coming in with a vengeance—the most contagious strand so far. great. just what everybody needed. christmas, cancelled. weddings, cancelled. it’s déjà vu no one asked for.

so what sage wisdom can be offered in a time like this? let’s put it simply: expect the unexpected, but just keep planning.

do not give up. you will eventually encounter the venues that are available. there are still plenty of vendors with your date open on their calendars. don’t let a few rejection e-mails get you down. everything that is meant for you can and will be. so despite the stress, the uncertainty, the anticipation of yet another application of murphy’s law…plan the wedding.

i do not know who needs to hear this, but adjust your guest count, sign that lingering contract, and respond to that vendors’ e-mail from last month!

groomsmen fashion inspiration miami beach tropical wedding design — if there’s anything we’ve learned in the last two years, it’s that we can’t plan life. we can make checklists, fill up calendars, bend over backwards, say our prayers, cross our t’s and dot our i’s. but if something *can* go wrong, unfortunately sometimes it *will.*

the only thing you *can* do is be selective with your vendors. jump on a phone call with them, get to know them, showcase who you really are in order to ensure it’s a great match.

because if we’re all going to ride out this storm we’re calling 2022, you’re going to want to have a team of vendors on your side that you can trust and rely on. you may not be able to plan life, but you can choose who makes your big day an unforgettable one from beginning to end.