What it’s like to postpone a wedding amid coronavirus pandemic
- We talk to some Hong Kong brides- and grooms-to-be about how they are navigating last-minute rescheduling for themselves and their guests
- Given 2020 is a double-spring leap year – particularly auspicious for newlyweds – anyone changing dates might need to consider weekdays
Emma Stone, Princess Beatrice, Dennis Quaid, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom are among the international celebrities who have cancelled, postponed or scaled back weddings, as events large and small skid to a halt in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
In Hong Kong, where cases began popping up in late January, couples started postponing their big days soon after news broke that some early virus victims transmitted the illness at weddings.
“We were mostly concerned about our guests’ safety, especially as we had them flying in from all over the world,” Yu says. “Some of them had already booked everything – hotels and flights – and unfortunately they couldn’t get it all refunded. [We also had to] contact each of our guests individually, because some don’t check email or are not very good with replying. We had to make sure no one would turn up on the original wedding date.”
As Yu runs event and catering companies, he is familiar with the difficult position it puts both parties in.
