It’s no secret that the global pandemic of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on important gatherings and special events. This has been especially true for weddings. With such short notice, couples are having to make the difficult decision of postponing their wedding date. This is no small feat, and brings with it an intense and unique wave of emotions and challenges associated with essentially having to re-plan their wedding day. With this daunting task facing many couples whose weddings were initially planned for the coming weeks and months in 2020, one of our couples at the Farm graciously shared their story of what postponing their wedding date has looked like for them. Inspired by an article published on Pennsylvania Weddings, we hope it is able to offer some light in these unprecedented times, and some hope in the midst of an uncertain future.

Thank you, Cara & Jason, for sharing your experience with us!

We cannot wait to celebrate with you on August 23!

First of all, we can not express the immense respect we have for both Cara & Jason as educators transitioning their students and their curriculum to online learning at the drop of a hat - while simultaneously postponing their wedding day. These two are truly incredible and we can not thank them enough for taking the time to share their experience with us, and for being so gracious as they work through these difficult changes.

Cara & Jason’s wedding was originally one of two weddings scheduled for our opening weekend of the 2020 season on April 18, 2020. They elected to postpone their wedding date to August 23, 2020.

How did you meet?

“Even though we both moved to the same town around 1st grade, and we both went trick-or-treating on the same block, and we only lived about 5 minutes from one another for a decade, we did not meet until our senior year. This was primarily because Cara took all the smart classes and Jason took all the shop classes. But eventually we met in Gym class and Jason promptly annoyed Cara as first impressions were never his thing. But Jason won Cara over by getting her out of class with fake hall passes, helping her with her car, work, or just general life drama, and Cara helped Jason pass math class and learn to take a break every now and then. Really not sure if we would have finished our senior year if it wasn’t for one another.”

Tell us your engagement story!

“We got engaged Christmas Morning of 2018. Just the two of us. Jason dressed our dog up as a reindeer, with bells and antlers. He (our dog Charlie) wore a present on his back that contained the hand made ring box and custom designed wedding ring. Jason did not do a practice run however, and he discovered morning of that Charlie was terrified of the bells and behaved like a lunatic. After Cara and Jason got the bells off of Charlie (while laughing hysterically), Jason told Cara to open the box that Charlie brought her and she didn’t realize it was a real gift. Inside, she found the ring box and the ring. While Jason was saying nice pretty things, Charlie promptly ate the handmade ring box, sans ring thank goodness! It was chaotic, and a little messy, and very perfect.”

How did you find the Farm?

“We started planning Spring of 2019. We knew we did not want a very traditional wedding from the beginning. We first thought we might want a destination wedding; Cape May is a sentimental vacation spot so we looked there. While in all of these beach themed venues we realized that it just wasn’t us. The gold and ornate halls, or the fancy meals. So we thought about us and were reminded of the farm / country areas we used to drive through in PA, times spent in parks outdoors, and our absolutely favorite food venues - food trucks. We quickly landed on Meyers Farm and Bakery after seeing the location and started to put it all together.”

Are you able to use the same vendors for your new date as your original date?

“We are able to use pretty much all the same vendors. They were extremely accommodating and understanding. We were very nervous about having so many separate vendors when we realized we had to move our date, but it all came together very quickly. Jason really took care of this. We got the news on my first day of digital instruction as a third grade teacher, and I was overwhelmed by 23 eight year olds attempting to navigate Chromebooks and emails. By the end of the day, Jason had contacted all of our vendors, secured a new wedding date, and created/ordered a new invitation. I planned the first wedding, but he planned the second.”

How are you handling the additional time leading up to your wedding?

“A little sad about it, of course. It took us both a couple of days for it to really sink in. We went from 32 days ‘til our wedding to 162 days. 

“We are both doing alright. There isn’t much for us to organize at this point, and we are both NJ teachers trying to digitally instruct our students. We have enough on our plates to keep us busy. Jason was actually a little relieved because he has been procrastinating making all of our center pieces and signs and now he has more time to work on it (not that he will get started anytime soon of course). We weren’t particularly attached to our original wedding date, it didn’t have any deeper purpose for us. We were just ready to be married. We discussed getting married on the 18th anyway, with just a witness or two. But we decided, since we were going to pay for this party, it might be nice to actually get married then too.”

Has anything helped to offered you hope in this situation?

“Yes. First, all of our vendors (Meyers Farm and Bakery included) have been incredible in maintaining our original expectations and contracts. Our families have been overwhelmingly supportive and positive about the change. They have done their best to find any and every tiny bright side to our new date, even the idea that now we can have a nice tan for our big day! Plus, our wedding isn’t canceled. We still get to marry each other. We still get to celebrate with our family and friends. And even better, we still get the same wedding we have been planning. This will always make a fantastic anniversary story for years to come!”

How have your guests reacted to the new date?

“Extremely understanding, and to be honest, very relieved. A handful were going to be unable to attend, or frightened to attend. It wouldn’t have been the celebration that we had hoped.”

Did you have many guests traveling from out of town?

“Not MANY. I would say we had around 10-15 guests traveling from out of town. Flights were booked, but we couldn’t do much about it. We are happy to say that everyone who reserved rooms in our hotel block were not penalized for their cancelations and many airlines are being accommodating as well.”

How did you let everyone know?

“For long distance guests/relatives, we gave phone calls very quickly, to be considerate of travel plans. We enlisted our families in help with this. Then, we created and sent our a revised wedding invitation, with the new date and time, asking our guest to RSVP once more. Jason was proud with his new invite design, he made a parody of the original “uninviting” guests from the first date and “inviting” them to the new one instead. He also bought a new domain, the original was www.jasonlovescara.com and the new one is www.jasonstilllovescara.com, our guests found it funny too.”

What advice do you have for other couples in the same situation?

“Try to make the best of the situation. This is a terrible set of circumstances, but with the right person by your side you can handle it.”

Cara & Jason, we are so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate with you. While we are (extremely) bummed not to be able to celebrate with you on April 18, we know that August 23 is going to be an incredible day and we can’t wait to be a part of it.

See below for the list of incredible vendors working with Cara & Jason to deliver them the perfect wedding day, no matter what:

Venue: the Farm Bakery and Events

Desserts: the Farm Bakery and Events

Coordinator: Jess Roth, the Farm Bakery and Events

Catering: the Munchie Machine

Catering: Dos Hermanos Tacos

Beverage: PJ's Bartending Service

Wedding Photography: Tori Repp Photography

DJ: the Pros