Funny Change the Date Ideas

If you’re busy searching the web for funny change the date card ideas, two things are certain:

• You need to change the date of your wedding
• You’ve maintained an optimistic attitude about this turn of events

There’s an old saying called Murphy’s Law, which warns that “anything that can go wrong will go wrong,” and while we hope you’ve skirted truly calamitous conditions leading to your postponement, we commend you for having a healthy sense of humor about whatever bumps you’ve encountered.

In this article, we’ll cover the practical details you’ll need to review in the event of a wedding postponement, and then we’ll get to the good stuff: 19 inventive ways to break the news to your guests while eliciting a hearty laugh or two in the process.

What to Do Before Sending Out Your Change the Dates

If you’re ready to give your guests notice of this change in plans, there are a number of loose ends to tie to ensure that your postponement is as minimally complicated (and costly) as possible.

Here are the main practical details to help you resolve this phase of your wedding planning process as painlessly as possible.

#1: Check Your Wedding Insurance Policy

For couples who purchased wedding insurance, it’s time to check in with your insurance company to get some concrete information on your coverage and how that may affect your business with vendors. There are two types of wedding insurance available to engaged couples:

• General Liability Insurance: This kind of insurance may cover accidents, injuries, or property damage incurred during a wedding.

• Cancellation Insurance: This Insurance protects couples in the event that they need to cancel or postpone their wedding.

While the latter may offer you and your partner financial protections for your postponement, remember that the date you purchased your wedding insurance policy is critical to determining whether or not you’ll be entitled to coverage.

In short, if you purchased your policy after you became aware that you may need to postpone your wedding, it may not be valid. If you purchased your insurance during the coronavirus pandemic, for instance, it’s unlikely that you can petition for postponement protections for reasons related to COVID-19.

#2: Talk to Your Wedding Planner

If you’ve solicited the support of a professional for planning your wedding, they’re the first person you’ll want in the loop before embarking on the process of postponement. There’s a reason you hired them in the first place: their expertise.

It’s more than likely your wedding planner has been through the process of a wedding delay before, and they may have a hawkish eye for details you may not realize need attending to. They’re an ideal, non-biased party to offer you exactly the practical and financial insights you need and provide a game plan for forging forward.

#3: Touch Base With Your Venue

Your next objective is to get in touch with the wedding venue(s) you’ve selected to host your ceremony and reception in order to discuss their dates and availability for rescheduling your wedding day.

It’s important to have a concrete and plausible time frame in mind and to come prepared with at least four or five alternative dates.

#4: Talk to Your Vendors

Once you’ve come to an understanding with your host venue, it’s time to explain your circumstances to your wedding vendors. Remember that these are private firms who rely on your business to keep up a hale and hearty enterprise, so do your best to do the following:

• Familiarize Yourself With Contract Terms: Before you drop them a line, re-read your vendor contracts. Depending on the prescribed terms and conditions, you may need to reconcile with the fact that most wedding postponements will inevitably suffer some financial losses.

• Try to Be Cooperative, Not Combative: It’s a hairy situation, but do your best to keep your cool. Work with your vendors, ideally alongside your wedding planner, to come to a cooperative solution that will work for all parties.

• Be Transparent: Remember that you’re working with humans who want you to enjoy your wedding. Keep good faith that they’ve likely seen delays and cancellations before, and that flexibility and kindness will take you a long way in your ensuing negotiations.

If your circumstances require you to find alternative vendors to accommodate your new wedding date, Zola has curated a catalog of stringently-vetted vendors all across the United States. Taking some time to surf our list of professionals will mollify some of the stress involved in the process of finding suitable replacements.

Our Top 11 Funny Taglines for Change the Dates

If there’s an appropriate time for your sense of humor to kick in, it’s when your wedding plans didn’t exactly go… according to plan. Perhaps you need a subtle and tongue-in-cheek way to break the news to your guests, or maybe you want to go ham and reach for a full-on dad joke to let them know you and your partner are changing course for now.

Whatever your sense of humor, here are our 11 best one-liners for you to use on your change the dates.

#1 “Love is patient…”

This timeless quote lifted from an oft-read passage of Corinthians 13:4-7 is a crowd favorite, no matter the circumstance. It gets your message of postponement across with a light, classic touch, and lets guests know that your plans are still in the works—you’re just experiencing a bump in the road.

#2 “No, It’s Not Déjà vu”

This solution is ideal for those who have both a prankster’s spirit and (understandably) don’t have it in them to come up with an entirely new concept for a change the date design.

Rather than printing a whole new batch of cards, we suggest using your former “save-the-date” template–but use this line to introduce your message of postponement instead. Guests will love being in on the joke, and you’ll save yourself the time and energy you need for amending other wedding arrangements.

#3 “Ahh, the ol’ Switcheroo”

If a little bit of dad humor is you and your partner’s thing, this line will surely lighten the mood. Other versions include:

• Psyche!
• Plot twist!
• LOL JK

Bear in mind these lines will undoubtedly tickle the younger set, but any octogenarian recipients (or more conservative relatives) may not take as well to this particular breed of humor.

#4 “Hope You Penciled Us In!” This is a sweeter, more wholesome way to relate to your guests that you sincerely want to celebrate with them.

If your budget allows, you may consider having miniature pencils made engraved with the updated date of your wedding. It’s a cute, thoughtful way of letting guests know you appreciate their patience and flexibility.

#5 “We’re rolling with the punches”

If you’re not one to shy away from some tacit toilet humor, we’ve seen couples take the subtle route, printing this change the date line with a cute toilet paper roll illustration—and we’ve seen bolder renditions where guests were mailed an actual customized roll of toilet paper conveying the message of postponement. Either way–no judgment on our end!

#6 “It Takes Two (Attempts)”

Here’s another slightly dad-joke flavored wedding pun to convey the delay to your guests. You’ll want to provide a succinct clarification of your change the date message to follow up this headline, with a link to your wedding website to fully flesh out the details of your postponement should your guests have any lingering questions.

#7 “Post-poned”

If you want to mix up your medium while sticking to paper stock, we suggest wedding (pun intended) this play on words with that beloved snail-mail medium of the postcard.

This approach can work especially well if you were planning a destination wedding or planned to marry out of state, sustaining the romantic getaway theme and giving guests something sweet and unsuspecting as a keepsake.

#8 “Time for a Plan B?”

When Plan A falls through, it’s always good to have a backup plan, otherwise known as Plan B.

It’s rare that anything ever goes exactly according to plan—and given how many variables are in play when it comes to planning a wedding, we guarantee your guests will certainly understand that. This funny line sends the message that your plans aren’t kaput, just under renovation.

#9 “We Still Do (Just Not This Second)”

Everyone knows what the present tense “I Do” means in wedding land—and while circumstances arise that can change the verb tense, they don’t necessarily change your intention. This message makes it crystal clear to your guests that you and your partner are still intent on holding your wedding, but have elected to take your time.

#10 “U Still In?”

Tex -message-themed cards are an increasingly popular style of wedding announcements, from Save the Dates, to Change the Dates, to the official wedding invitations themselves.

While a decidedly modern approach, using SMS conventions like speech bubbles, emojis, acronyms, and abbreviations will keep things low key and casual, communicating to guests that the plans are still on—you’re just working out the kinks.

#11 “We’re Running on Island Time”

If you’d planned on throwing a destination wedding somewhere of the tropical variety, this line may be a great way to carry on the theme and lift guest’s spirits.

Yes, postponing a destination wedding can get complicated, but if there’s any time to channel that easy, breezy, taking-it-slow attitude for the greater good, it’s with your change the date message.

Top 5 Funny Non-Card Change the Date Options

For those who wish to take the road less traveled and skip a stationery order, there are ample other eclectic ways to let guests know of your postponement.

Here are five other charming methods to deliver your message while keeping it paperless.

#1 “And Now We Play...the Waiting Game”

If you have the budget for it and are looking for a fun, interactive option for your change the date messaging, consider having a custom game printed for guests to play. Prospective crowd-pleasers include:

• Wedding-themed crossword puzzle
• Word search
• Sudoku
• Wedding-themed trivia
• A classic deck of cards (printed with your new wedding date!)

This change the date alternative is sure to be more resource and time-intensive than your standard card, but guests will appreciate the extra dose of effort while plans are on pause.

#2 “Coffee Break!”

Custom coasters are becoming a classic non-stationery option for couples to send save and change the date notices to their guests.

Given their growing popularity, coasters come in a range of options from disposable to durable, budget-friendly to costly. Whether your guests are coffee, tea, or kombucha drinkers, nobody likes a water stain, and the coaster makes for a considerate way of breaking the news.

#3 “Snack Break!”

Another increasingly popular alternative to stationary is a bar of chocolate, printed with a customized wrapper bearing your message.

If you’re trying to get your point across with a note of sweetness and composure, a chocolate bar, M&M’s, or another one of you and your partner’s favorite candies are an excellent way of delivering your message without putting too much pressure on it. There’s no need to save the wrapper and, besides, who doesn’t love chocolate?

#4 “We’re Experiencing Some Turbulence, Folks”

If you’ve Googled “save-the-date” ideas, you’ve likely come across a paper airplane card or two. This version of the common card, reminiscent of first crushes and high school sweethearts, is a perfect specimen to be tailored to a change the date message. Other options include:

• “Slight Flight Delay”
• “An Announcement From Your Pilots”
• “Rerouting...”

So long as no one in your audience has a fear of flying, the paper plane and air-travel humor can be a charming way of telling your guests to remain calm while you and your partner plan for a safe and steady landing.

#5 “We Hate to Be the Bearers of Bad News”

Sending guests a stuffed bear along with this funny line is a touching (and jocular) way of letting them down easy and asking them for their cooperation while you smooth out your new plans. Who could say no to that face?

Three Lighthearted Taglines for Weddings Postponed Due to COVID-19

Since 2020, engaged couples around the world have had to contend with unprecedented challenges to their wedding plans caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The global health crisis has inevitably led to worldwide cancellations, postponements, and adaptations for those planning their nuptials—and if there’s any time your friends and family will understand the need to put the brakes on plans, it’s now.

For a few lighthearted ways to communicate your postponement “due to COVID-19,” here are a few upbeat ways to break the news to your guests.

#1 “Don’t Blame Us–Blame COVID”

It may be 2021, but there’s still plenty of room to riff on this running joke. Here we have an upfront way of conveying the logic behind your change of plans while reminding them that you still plan on following through when it’s safe to do so.

#2 “Hol(e)d Up!”

For those engaged couples who are putting their wedding plans on hold to stock up on toilet paper, batten down the hatches, and wait out the storm, this pun is a humorous way of letting your guests know you and your partner will be honeymooning indoors until it’s safe for you and your guests to celebrate together.

#3 “Still Going the Distance (Just Not at a Social Distance)

Now that “social distancing” has filtered its way into the common parlance, it’s time to crack a joke about it. Weddings are highly intimate affairs, so it’s understandable that some couples are delaying their celebrations for a time when hugs, kisses, and dances can be enjoyed without fear of hosting a “super-spreader” event.

How to Prevent Confusion and “Fake News” When You’re Changing the Date

Now that you’ve decided on a good-humored way of relating this change of plans to your friends and loved ones, there are a number of other practical considerations you’ll want to get a handle on so that no one winds up misinformed.

Here is your handy change the date checklist, so there’s no chance of any confusion while you’re putting a pause on your wedding plans.

#1 Update Your Wedding Website

The utility of the wedding website becomes particularly apparent in situations where a postponement is in order. After you’ve informed your guests of the change of plans, it’s likely you’ll be swarmed with all kinds of versions of the same question: why?

Stating your message loud and clear on your wedding portal is the best way to minimize the amount of text traffic your phone will be besieged with after your change the date has been issued.

If you haven’t put together your wedding website yet, now is the perfect time to do so. Zola has more than 300 website designs ready to go, so that you can get the message out there to your guests as swiftly as possible and have some fun dabbling in personalized design once your celebration is back up and running.

Remember that you and your partner are in full control of what to disclose, and how to disclose it. The online motherboard of your wedding—the website—is an ideal platform to express what you want to, to the degree of privacy that you and your partner are comfortable with.

#2 Use an RSVP Manager

Depending on when you need to issue a change the date card, you may need to start the RSVP process from scratch. If you’ve already disbursed your wedding invitations, it’s likely you already have a list of yeses, nos, and maybes, which can make the prospect of starting the whole procedure over again incredibly frustrating.

Fortunately, there are tools available to streamline the process of collecting RSVPs from your guests digitally, even if you’re sending out stationery save-the-dates, change the dates, and wedding invitations via mail.

Zola’s Wedding Guest List Manager is a user-friendly tool designed to collate guests’ addresses and emails, track their RSVPs for your new wedding date, and even message guests as details continue to develop when your plans reboot. Even if you’re not ready to relaunch the RSVP phase, it’s an excellent tool to have at your fingertips to keep things simple down the line.

#3 Above All, Take It Easy

No matter the circumstances that led to your postponement, rescheduling your wedding can be a let-down. If you’re fielding messages of condolence or confusion from guests, try your best to maintain calm, composure, and optimism in the interim.

That can start with a funny, buoyant change thedate notice—but it’s also important to give yourself permission to take time for some much-needed TLC before resuming the planning process with your partner.

Take Two: Zola Style

Zola was built to give couples an entire artillery of tools for every stage of the wedding process. From post-engagement, to post-nuptials, to postponement, we’re here to guide you through the whole process with style, skill, and simplicity.

For couples pushing their wedding date a little further into the future, take some time to visit our website and discover the myriad of utilities for guest list management, establishing a wedding registry, and putting together your wedding website.

Devoting a little extra time to setting your celebrations up for success now will ensure a seamless, streamlined process when it’s time to resume the wedding planning.