How to Reschedule Your Mitzvah (Due to Snow)

It's going to snow on your Mitzvah and you need to reschedule. Here are tips on what to do. | Pop Color Events | Adding a Pop of Color to Bar & Bat Mitzvahs in MD, DC & VA.

If your Mitzvah needs to be rescheduled due to weather, you’ll be very happy you hired a planner because s/he will handle the heavy lifting. Decisions and follow through will need to happen quickly. Here are the steps to take if you need to reschedule your event.

1. Call your planner

If you have a planner, s/he will handle all of the following for you and will already have been in touch with all of your vendors prior to your phone call. Pat yourself on the back for making a good decision and make yourself a (spiked) hot chocolate.

2. Check your contracts

If you don’t have a planner, you’ll want to check all of your contracts for a “Force Majeure”, “Act of God” or “Act of Weather” clause. Contractually, what are your vendors responsible for providing? Ethically, will they go above and beyond what their contract requires?

3. Talk to your synagogue

Will the service happen as planned or will it be rescheduled? If it happens as planned, decide if you still want to change your party date. Assuming you still want to change…

4. Talk to your venue (if it’s different from your synagogue)

Delaying the party to Sunday allows roads to be plowed and conditions to improve and may be the best solution. Does your venue have availability to reschedule to Sunday or to a different date (if the service is rescheduled)? Will there be any change to the level of service you expected due to the date change? Finalize your new event date.

5. Talk to your vendors

Go through your contracts, one by one, and contact each vendor. Does each vendor have availability to reschedule to the new date? If so, will there be any change to the contracted level of service, items expected or person/people onsite expected due to the date change? If major changes need to be made, get all of the details in writing. If they do not have availability on your new date, will they help you find a suitable replacement or give a refund? If the weather conditions still may not be great, ask what contingencies they have in place to ensure you receive excellent service.

6a. Contract any new vendors

If, for any reason, your old vendors are unable to service your new date, you’ll need to quickly find new vendors. Start calling and sending emails ASAP!

6b. Email your guests

Now that you have the big details ironed out, it’s time to let your guests know the changes. Send an email with all of the details, new and old, and let them know you’d still love to have them. If there were guests who were unable to come due to the date being bad, you may want to reach out to see if they can join on the new date. To your guests, it will seem like “magic” that your event has been rescheduled and only you will know the headache of what went on behind the scenes!

Want to save the headache? Contact me about how Pop Color Events can help!