If you are the bride or groom, you may be in a
quite a bit of emotional turmoil with the cancellation of your wedding. Above
all else, you will want the help of your friends and family not only to provide
you with emotional support but to deal with the logistics of formally canceling
the wedding.
The first thing that you will have to consider when calling off your engagement
are your guests. If you have not sent out invitations yet, letting close friends
and family members know that the wedding was cancelled is enough notification.
From there, the news will trickle down to people who would have been guests at
your wedding.
If you have already sent out wedding invitations and you have time, you should
send your guests a note letting them know that the wedding was cancelled. Word
it in a similar manner as your wedding invitation, from the hosts who authored
the wedding invitation. One example is:
Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
announce that the marriage of
their daughter
Barbara Marie
to
Howard Franklin
will not take place
If there is not enough time for a formal note, a telephone call will suffice for
notification. It would be best to enlist the help of a family member for this
purpose.
Similarly, if a wedding announcement was published in the local newspaper, you
may want to consider a cancellation announcement in a similar form:
Mr. and Mrs. John Smith regret to inform the community that their daughter,
Barbara Marie, will no longer be marrying Howard Franklin Jones.
Remember that nobody needs to explain why the wedding will not take place. Be
prepared that many guests will want to know why, but they have no right to this
information unless you feel the need to inform them of the reasons.
If you have already had a bridal shower, you will also want to return your gifts
to your guests, as well as any wedding gifts that you have received. Add a note
to the gift thanking them for their gift, but that you feel that you should
return it as the wedding has been cancelled.
Depending on who called off the wedding, you as the bride may or may not want to
give back the engagement ring. However, the classiest move in this situation
would be to return the ring to the groom, if he is the one who bought it and
presented it to you. Keeping the ring would only bring back bad memories of a
wedding that never happened. However, if it was a joint purchase or if you would
like to know what your legal right is to the ring, consult a state attorney with
your situation.
If you have already purchased a dress, you must decide whether you want to keep
it or not. Some brides have cancelled a wedding, kept the dress, and wore it
years later for the wedding that happened. As long as you preserve your dress
and know that this is the style of dress that you would like to wear for your
wedding day, you may want to consider keeping your dress. Otherwise, there will
be a cancellation fee if your dress is already on order. If you have already put
deposits down and don�t have much left to spend, see if the store would be able
to sell the dress to a prospective bride, or sell it at a consignment shop.
As for your particular vendors, check your contracts to determine what your
cancellation fees will be. As soon as you can, notify all of your vendors about
the cancellation. You should get back a certain percentage of your deposits,
depending on how far the cancellation is from the wedding. Sometimes you may be
able to recoup all of your deposit money, although in many instances the vendor
will take a certain percentage of it as a cancellation fee. The earlier you
notify your vendor, the better, as they may be able to capture business for that
day and you may be able to get more money ba
