In episode 21, Whitney reflects on an article from Martha Stewart Weddings called "8 People You Shouldn't Feel Obligated to Have in Your Wedding Party."

She shares whether she agrees/disagrees with the article's advice on these 8 types of people, based on the weddings she planned for her own couples.

She also adds two more types of people you also should be thinking about as well!

This is a shorter episode, intended to answer this important question and hopefully help listeners assemble their own wedding party lineup.

Welcome to Essential Wedding Podcast! We’re in episode 20, which is the second episode in a two part series called Planning During a Pandemic. My guest is Bonnie Chase, who is the Owner and Founder of Bliss Events. Let me share some details on Bonnie. Like most expats who live and work in Mexico, Bonnie moved to Cabo and fell in love with it. With a background in event-driven marketing, she began working almost exclusively on events with an emphasis on weddings and becoming the premiere Cabo Wedding Planner. While she proudly employs a team of event planners, she personally cultivates and maintains a relationship with every client.

As we chat, Bonnie and I share a list of reasons that maybe it would be best to plan your wedding now, and we also discuss a list of reasons why may actually be better to wait. Bonnie tells us all about what it’s like to tour venues right now, how weddings are changing as a response to this pandemic (with some specific advice for how to keep you and your guests safe on the day-of), what to do if your wedding cannot continue as planned, an important clause that needs to be in your wedding contract for ‘just incase’ situations such as these, how to gracefully let guests know you’ll understand if they’re uncomfortable traveling or attending group settings right now, and some really nice words of encouragement from Bonnie as well as some must-know advice for couples planning right now.

If you have any questions for me, please head over to @essentialweddingpodcast on Instagram. You’ll see the titles for this series called “Planning During a Pandemic” so please leave your question in the comments so I can answer it inside the episode. If you’d like a PDF of the content in podcast episodes, formatted in a really pretty user-friendly way that will be invaluable to your planning process, head over to the website essentialplannerco.com and subscribe to my mailing list. I’ll make sure those PDFs head your way every time I release a new one. And finally, if you’d like to follow Bonnie Chase you can find her at eventsbybliss.com and on Instagram at @eventsbybliss.

Hi, friends! In today's episode we are moving into episode 1 of the two-part series, "Planning During a Pandemic." At this extraordinary moment of our lives, I think we're all looking around for some sort of clarity and even guidance about how we can best manage these times.

If you're engaged, or you were hoping/planning to become engaged, the feelings of uncertainly are likely compounded and are probably having a major impact on what this season feels like for you. So it is especially important to me to show up well for you, friends!

You probably have questions like:

Should we stick to the original date we have (which we made before this all began) and now it’s coming up?

We don’t have a date yet so when should we be thinking about planning our big day?

How is this pandemic going to impact the vision I’ve always had about what my wedding day would someday be like? What can we still do and what will need to change?

Should we still try to have a big wedding or should we be thinking about something smaller, or destination, or maybe even just the two of us?

How should I come to the day that would have been our wedding day but we had to cancel?

So to answer all these questions (and more!) I invited Liz Higgins, LMFT to be my expert guest in this episode. Liz is the founder of Millennial Life Counseling, a practice focused on helping couples and individuals create epic marriages, relationships, and lives in the modern world.

IN THIS EPISODE:

We have a conversation about what it means to be engaged, in this covid-19 season, through the lens of maintaining a strong, unified, connection with each other.

So many engaged couples are more stressed than ever. How to deal with the added stress you two may be feeling.

Conflict between partners is also on the rise. How can couples show up well, and even use conflict, in a healthy way?

How to decide whether to get married sooner (maybe even stick with a wedding date you already chose prior to the start of the pandemic) or whether it's best to wait it out.

Other thoughts to be taking into consideration (i.e. "should we scale down, make it a destination, cut our budget", etc.)

How to take care of yourselves and each other, even amidst the extra highs and lows being tossed your way.

How you two can make the most of your engagement season. Our ideas for some fun bonding activities that will bring you two closer.

Suggestions for how to use empathy, especially on the extra hard days.

How to honor the day that would have been your wedding day, which you two had to cancel or reschedule.

In this special (short) episode, the host of The Essential Wedding Podcast speaks directly to listeners about her heart behind this podcast and what is gained by listening every week. She shares her passion for treating the wedding day as 'Day 1' of a lifelong adventure, and then shares how engaged couples can live this season to it's fullest by having important conversations and taking part in the daily practices that successful marriages are built on. This podcast is SHAKING UP the wedding/marriage institutions (it's about time, right?!) to encourage weddings days that are personal (sorry, mom and dad!) and marriages that last.