Change of Plans: The Pandemic Might Cancel My Wedding, This Is How I'm Taking Control

As a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, couples all over the world are having to make a very difficult, and often heartbreaking, decision to cancel, postpone, or adjust their best-laid wedding plans. To share their stories—and, hopefully, help our readers process this admittedly emotional and fluid situation, we are asking those affected to share their "Change of Plans" stories in their own words. Below, Robyn Turk tells her story from Brooklyn, New York.

From the beginning of my journey through wedding planning, time management was my main priority. The logistics that come with weddings were always incredibly unattractive to me, so I concluded that the only way I could create a wedding that I could enjoy would be to arrange every detail ahead of time. Most people would call this micromanagement.

I felt that having as much time as possible to coordinate everything would dissolve any potential stress. So my fiancé and I picked a venue early into our engagement, planning to wed exactly two years after he proposed. 

My planning centered around a master spreadsheet with a page for everything we would possibly need to consider. As the wedding approached, I had mapped out a schedule of when we would accomplish each last-minute task, from meetings with vendors to haircuts. With over 18 months, I could plan every single detail—except for the global pandemic that put the world at a standstill two months before the wedding.

Our May 24 wedding date has not officially been compromised, as stay-at-home mandates in New York state have not made their way past May 15, as of the time of publication. We decided not to postpone unless it becomes absolutely critical to do so. But I had to kiss my perfectly planned agenda goodbye.

Originally, my schedule consisted of appointments for manicures, teeth whitenings, facials, hair conditioning treatments for me, and haircuts for my fiancé. (I am a beauty writer, after all.) If life had gone as I planned, the months leading up to the big day would have been pre-wedded bliss, with an all-knowing calendar telling us what to do and when.

When Rescue Spa emailed me at the end of March to notify me that it would remain closed through June, I realized that my pre-wedding beauty plans would need to change. I had begun scouting the right spas in January to find the right treatment and esthetician to then schedule a facial for exactly four weeks before the wedding. It wasn’t long before the rest of our appointments were canceled.

I no longer had my strategically arranged calendar, and very few prospects for making a plan B. As I might have already mentioned, I am an organizer. I am driven by need-to-find solutions, so I simply needed to find a solution to being left without professional beauty treatments.

I have been covering the beauty circuit for a couple of years, writing on product launches and skincare recommendations. I’m no expert, but I have definitely learned a thing or two interviewing dermatologists and brand founders. If there were ever a good time to put my knowledge of skincare and the excess of product samples to good use, that time was now.

As with every project I’d ever tackled before, my pre-wedding home skincare regimen was based on organization. My goal was to have healthy, glowing skin by the time of my wedding. With six weeks left, I drew up a seven-day schedule, with each day focusing on a specific goal that would ultimately lead to that radiant complexion. I sorted my trove of 50-plus beauty products into groups based on their benefits: hydrating, exfoliating, calming, purifying, brightening, and energizing.

Each day in the weekly plan focuses on a specific one of these goals, with two days dedicated to brightening. Previously, my skincare regimen centered around a cleanser, toner, serum, eye cream, and moisturizer that I would use twice daily, plus the odd face mask every so often. The new routine is much more detailed.

I drew up a calendar outlining the products I would use each day, catered specifically to each goal. My fiancé has decided to take part in my skin-prep extravaganza, so we start each morning with our Olly Glowing Skin vitamin gummies made with hyaluronic acid, collagen, and sea buckthorn, before I lay out the products du jour. Each day sees the basic cleansing and toning ritual, topped with a different serum and moisturizer. We’ve also been using the Ole Henriksen Banana Bright Eye Crème between serum and moisturizing most days, which has cured the dark, under-eye circles on both of our faces.

The evenings are a bit more involved. This usually means a face mask—the Crop Natural Hydrating Aloe Vera Mask on hydrating days,Blaq Charcoal Peel on detox days, and Plant Apothecary Matcha Antioxidant Face Mask on energizing days. Three times weekly we each use a dermaroller to stimulate collagen flow to our faces and promote a firmer complexion. The other four days we use a crystal face roller after using the serum, and twice we do a green tea steam facial. 

We end each night with either the Onekind Dream Cream Nighttime Moisturizer to moisturize or an overnight mask—the Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Sleeping Mask on calming days and the HydroPeptide Hydro-Lock Sleep Mask on one of the brightening days. The other brightening day calls for the Blaq Hydrogel Eye Mask while the exfoliation day calls for either a scrub or glycolic acid peel. The whole thing is really quite simple.

Within a few weeks of our new regimen, my fiancé and I have each noticed a difference in our skin. The stress over the debate of whether to postpone no longer shows on our faces. We have the bright, relaxed, and energized complexions of a couple whose wedding plans fall in line seamlessly. All this from products that have been sitting untouched in our apartment all along.

I’ve learned to follow my own advice when it comes to beauty. Had I spent more time living in each moment over the past two years instead of obsessing over an upcoming day, I could have had glowing skin all along. More importantly, I’m learning the art of letting go. I’m still a novice in this lesson, though I see the value it would have on my daily sense of wellbeing.

We’ve accepted that our wedding won’t take place as planned and might not even take place when we want it to. I can’t control what will happen between now and May 24, and I was never able to control this, despite my aggressive organizational tactics. At least I can control my skincare.