Even a global pandemic can't stop love, especially during
wedding season. While stay-at-home orders and social distancing restrictions
have made it impossible for couples to have the big traditional wedding they
may have expected, many are forging on with their nuptials anyway by getting
creative to share their happy day with more loved ones than ever possible
before.
Greg Prieur and his schoolteacher fiancé Katie Young had
been planning their April 4 wedding this year since November 2018, according to
The St. Charles Herald-Guide. During that time, they saved up to buy a
house and take a honeymoon, booked the vendors they wanted, and planned their
dream New Orleans-themed wedding. When the coronavirus pandemic had escalated
to the point of banning gatherings over 250 people, the couple was devastated
and tried to adapt to limit the number of attendees and staff in an effort to
salvage their dream wedding. As the public gathering limit kept going down
until it was just 10 people, they realized that the wedding of their dreams
wouldn't happen in the way they had hoped, and they postponed the celebration
until July.
"But even doing that, we were crushed and didn't feel peace
about the decision," Katie said. "There is so much uncertainty around us right
now and the idea that we don't know what's going to happen with all of this,
and there's a possibility that we may get to July and have to postpone again—we
just wanted to be married."
Instead of trying to preserve their big planned wedding,
Katie and Greg planned a new kind of wedding for their original date on April
4. They were married on the lawn of Katie's mother's house by her brother, who
was ordained online. A socially distanced violinist accompanied the ceremony
and La Louisiane Bakery made a smaller version of the wedding and groom's cakes
the couple had planned.
Friends, family members, and coworkers helped out lending
lights, décor, chairs, and photography skills. The immediate family sat spaced
out on the lawn, while other friends drove by and neighbors stood in their
yards to join in on the spectacle. The event was also livestreamed for the 500
virtual attendees. In the end, the virtual aspect of their wedding allowed them
to share the special day with even more loved ones than they would have been
able to given other circumstances.
"It was pretty amazing to have such a small, intimate
ceremony but still be able to share it with all the people we care about,"
Katie said.
Katie and Greg aren't the only ones who just couldn't wait
for the end of the pandemic to get married. As summer continues to approach,
many couples who had planned their nuptials during peak wedding season now
consider hosting virtual wedding ceremonies and celebrations.
One of the most noteworthy of these weddings was that of
Elaine Welteroth, the New York Times best-selling author, Project
Runway judge, and former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue. According to
Vogue,
Welteroth and her now-husband, musician Jonathan Singletary, had been set on
the date of May 10, 2020, for their wedding because of the personal
significance of the date on Mother's Day. However, as the coronavirus pandemic
escalated and the bachelor party had to be postponed, the couple struggled with
accepting that their three-and-a-half-year engagement would not culminate in
the grand wedding they had planned.
"But as the reality set in, both of us realized that we
actually felt more 'married' to our date and to each other than we did to our
big, exciting plans," Welteroth said. With the priority being saving the
wedding date itself and just being married, the couple changed their plans to
adapt to a "virtual quarantine wedding," with the couple on their front stoop
in Brooklyn, New York—a space that has been sacred to their time quarantining
in the limited space of New York City.
As a figure active on social media and savvy in the virtual
world, Welteroth put her all into planning this new virtually connected wedding
that would still allow loved ones to share her special day. Around 200 friends
and family members, including the couple's officiating pastor from their home
church, attended the wedding virtually through Zoom, and a small group of loved
ones who lived nearby came to attend the ceremony while maintaining social
distance. Concerned with the safety and health of all, the couple provided
guests with gloves and masks and even wrote out their names in chalk on the
sidewalk to ensure everyone kept six feet apart.
Despite the circumstances, the small
event became something truly beautiful and joyous. A floral arch framed the
front stoop, and a friend and DJ played music from the couple's curated wedding
party playlist, for a virtual block party everyone could dance to, no matter
where they were. In a time of perceived social disconnect and struggle, the
wedding was a magical moment when all guests could connect from near and far to
celebrate the couple.
As large events seem like a thing of the past at the moment,
many event-planning companies are having to get creative in order to survive
during this time. The Brooklyn-based wedding planning company Modern Rebel has shifted
to helping with virtual coordination by helping with logistics like digital
invitations, videos, DJs, and contactless deliveries of cakes and flowers,
according to CBS
New York.
"Virtual weddings are not void of logistics," Modern Rebel
owner Amy Shack Egan said. "Like, if you've been on a work call, even with more
than 10 people, you know that it's chaotic. And so what we do is take the
stress out of it." This entails a technical rehearsal and creation of tutorial
videos to ensure everyone can access the event virtually and that it can flow
smoothly without technical issues.
Las Vegas-based company Cactus Collective Weddings has also
struggled with maintaining an event business during a pandemic.
"We had over 40 weddings planned that either postponed or
went in a different direction, and our inquiries are low because people just
don't know what to do," owner McKenzi Taylor said. "My role as business owner
has really transpired into being a listener and helper, even if they don't go
the route of having our services, by helping them walk through what I see and
having brainstorming sessions."
As a company that specializes in elopements and more
minimalistic micro-weddings,
Cactus Collective has helped those who don't want to wait to get married to
transition to these alternative smaller ceremonies. An elopement or smaller
ceremony doesn't just ensure safe social distancing, but it also is much less
expensive and, for many, more intimate and deeper than dealing with the stress
of a traditional wedding.
"We're really encouraging couples right now to consider
having just themselves, the minister, and the photographer, but they're able to
have some guests as long as they maintain social distancing and practice safety
with wearing masks and anything else the CDC recommends," Taylor said."It just requires a little perspective shift.
These small ceremonies don't have to be a disappointment. They can definitely
still be luxe with a lot of elements you originally wanted, only smaller and
maybe richer in detail or depth."
For those who cannot travel or still want to wait for to
have their larger dream wedding, Cactus Collectives is offering wedding
planning where couples can book their venue, photographer, florals, and other
elements now and just choose the date of their service later.
"We're definitely getting quite a few responses to this,"
Taylor said. "I think what's nice about it is that people are really just in
limbo right now, and they feel they need something to start moving forward. Even
if it's not a date, they can still start the wedding-planning process."
Couples can make decisions about their future wedding now
and even take advantage of some discounted rates vendors are offering because
of the pandemic.
Another Las Vegas wedding-planning company has creatively
offered a way for would-be guests to celebrate with couples who have postponed
their weddings or decided to cancel and elope. Scheme Events works with clients
to create celebration boxes to be delivered to guests and family members who
cannot celebrate with the couple in person. The boxes are filled with confetti
poppers or rice to throw, chef recipes and ingredients for all to make the same
meal at different homes, wedding favors that have already been purchased but
cannot be used, or USBs of wedding playlists or a prerecorded ceremony video.
While many couples and families are grieving the loss of the
wedding they had planned, these celebration boxes offer some joy and connection
while they try to figure out what to do or wait for this time to pass.
"It's a little bit of a waiting game, but I do believe that
love is not cancelled, and we will celebrate eventually," Scheme Events owner
Tara Federico said. "That's why the Celebration Box was invented—to be able to
gently celebrate in a fun, unique, and clever way while we wait for the
opportunity to gather again, which I know will happen eventually."
