Yet another unfortunate consequence of Coronavirus is that many weddings are having to be postponed. If you are in this situation, one of the practical points you will have to deal with is whether your pre-nuptial agreement will still be valid at the point that your wedding does take place.
The vast majority of pre-nuptial agreements state that they come into force at the time of marriage, provided that the marriage takes place within 12 months of the agreement being signed. Your first port of call will therefore be to check if that wording is included in your agreement. If it is, then even if your pre-nuptial agreement specifically sets out the date on which your wedding was originally planned to take place, provided that your wedding still takes place within 12 months of the agreement, the agreement remains valid. Absolute best practice would be to exchange updating disclosure before the rearranged wedding date to ensure that everyone is fully aware of all circumstances at the time of the wedding - the more significant any change of circumstances, the more important this would be.
If your wedding is postponed so that it will take place more than 12 months after your pre-nuptial agreement was signed, then it is likely that you would need to enter into a further agreement. Depending on whether your circumstances have changed significantly since the agreement was originally signed, you may be able to sign a short deed to confirm that you both intend that the terms should still be binding on you, even though your marriage is now due to take place at a later date.
If a significant change of circumstances has occurred before the rearranged wedding takes place, it will likely be necessary to enter into a further agreement, confirming that you are both aware of the change of circumstances (and if necessary have received updating disclosure from the other party) but would still like to enter into the pre-nuptial agreement.
Depending on your circumstances, it may also be worth entering into a cohabitation agreement in the interim period before your wedding.
In any event, we recommend that you get in touch with the solicitors who advised you both with the original agreement, to see if they have any concerns about its validity given the postponement.
If you need any advice concerning your pre-nuptial agreement or would like a lawyer to draft a pre-nuptial agreement for you, the family team at Mills & Reeve would be more than happy to assist.