COVID-19 forcing wedding cancellations across Sask.

Julia Smith was preparing to celebrate the perfect day this summer.

She was busy planning her dream wedding until COVID-19 began alarming Canadians earlier this month.

As the days went on, and the confirmed cases and government restrictions increased, sobering discussions with her fiance soon materialized into talks of cancelling their wedding.

With plenty of uncertainty surrounding the spring and summer, Smith paused her dreams of walking down the aisle and cancelled her wedding slated for Aug 1.

“With the social distancing, it’s going to be really hard to cut my guest list down from over 100 people down to 50 people,” she said, assuming many of the current pandemic restrictions will still be in place throughout the summer.

“We wouldn’t be allowed to have a buffet; we wouldn’t be allowed to have a photo booth – I wouldn’t be able to hug my friends and family.”

Plenty of other factors led Smith to the decision. Her fiance, Patrick Parker, was recently let go from his job due to the societal halt from COVID-19. As well, many of the guests would be travelling to the wedding from out of province.

“I’m the only one working right now. It’s a little bit nerve-wracking thinking that we would be able to do this on one income, especially if I’m having to support some of my family through this time,” Smith said.

The timing of the wedding needed to be an absolute certainty with much of Parker’s family having an agriculture background. Smith didn’t want to push the wedding into the fall and lose half of her guests to harvest.

“It was going to be like a big family reunion for him and for me,” Smith said.

Another disappointment to the couple is the money lost from deposits, rental agreements, hair stylists and makeup artists.

Smith, a medical laboratory technologist in Regina, figures she has lost nearly $2,000, which she thinks could be much worse if not for careful spending throughout the planning process.

Instead of the picturesque wedding at Parker’s family farm in a summer setting, Smith is choosing to look at the positives of cancelling the wedding – the health and safety of family and friends with the spread of COVID-19 increasing.

“It’s not like we can’t afford to wait another year,” she said. “There are more important things to worry about right now.”

She did warn other soon-to-be couples of the negativity surrounding a cancellation.

Smith was pressured by vendors and guests about cancelling her wedding more than four months in advance.

“A few people did say to me, ‘Oh, I think you’re overacting. It’s 134 days away, why are you cancelling your wedding?’ ” Smith said. “It would be really heartbreaking to cancel your wedding and then pick a date for say September and then find out you can’t do that date as well.

“For anyone that’s being critical about it, there’s a lot of reasons.”

Not all is lost with the cancellation. Smith and Parker plan to legally marry in a private ceremony this year before the big bash in either 2021 or 2022.

Leah Schick had her world turned upside down about three weeks ago. That’s when the soon-to-be bride from Melville started to realize her wedding scheduled for this past Saturday was in jeopardy.

With health risks for both the wedding couple and family attending the wedding, Schick had no choice but to cancel once restrictions were handed down in the province on March 14.

“My dad has cancer, my fiance’s mom is not well, and the both of us have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue,” she said of the health concerns behind the decision to cancel the wedding. “All of us are sort of in danger of being together.”

One phone call from her father was all it took to give her confidence in her decision.

“My dad called and said, ‘Not that I don’t want to come to your wedding, but I am very scared to do so. Even if you go ahead with it, I don’t think I can be there,’ ” Schick said.

From guests to vendors to the hotel, Schick said everyone was understanding and supportive.

“We haven’t lost a cent,” she said. “All we have to do is reschedule when the world gets back to normal.”

Instead of celebrating the day she has planned for months with 135 of her closest family and friends, Schick is wondering when any wedding her size will take place.

Schick has set a tentative date for July 31 to keep her bookings in place with the hotel, photographers and flower arrangements.

“We are really hoping that this will all settle down and life will get back to normal again,” she said.

– With files from 650 CKOM’s Harrison Brooks