Coronavirus has recently become an unwanted third wheel in many relationships. Fledging relationships have been snuffed out, too much time apart or together has caused tension between long-term partners, and with the divorce rate in Wuhan soaring after lockdown was lifted, it seems that not even married couples are safe. However, perhaps the most heavily impacted lovebirds are engaged couples and the wedding industry as a whole.
Similar to the belligerent, tipsy uncle invariably present at every wedding, lockdown has rudely imposed itself on many a special day and tainted what was intended to be a perfect celebration. Carefully crafted Pinterest boards and wedding scrapbooks have been cast aside as government regulations have rendered large scale weddings impossible. Faced with the impossibility of their ideal ceremony, concerns about health and the thought of close family and friends being unable to witness this special ceremony, many couples have decided to postpone their wedding until after lockdown is lifted. However, some have decided to go ahead with their ceremonies, albeit not quite as originally planned.
Rachel Watson (22, Drogheda, Ireland) originally planned to get married on 18th May in a ceremony with around 130 guests. Speaking about her wedding day, she said “We decided to go ahead in lockdown because the wedding day was all about us making promises to each other to love and stay with each other for the rest of our life. We missed having family and friends to celebrate with us, but ultimately, getting married meant so much to us and postponing it for the sake of having a big party would have felt wrong for us.”
Her ceremony looked notably different from anything planned pre-lockdown. “Our wedding took place with my pastor and our two family (isolating) units. Siblings did music and photography for us… There was social distancing between each isolating family unit for the day, however that didn’t stop us doing a BBQ in the sun and playing some football. Some families sent in videos giving us their greetings and celebrating from their homes with us. It was such a special day and I wouldn’t change anything about it.”
Other couples have made use of live-streaming technologies such as Zoom and YouTube to enable friends and families to share in their big day. Elena Bolha (22, Virginia, USA) decided to use YouTube Live to include her family and friends in her wedding ceremony. She commented “We planned to get married on May 23rd at an old train station in the city. When we found out we needed to drastically change our wedding plans, we knew we had to get married on the day we had planned- we just didn’t want to wait any longer.”
“From the start of all of these changed plans, we knew we needed a way to live-stream the ceremony. We have so many loved ones that we wanted to be there for the wedding but couldn’t be, including my brother. My dad and photographer spent a lot of time planning and making sure they had the correct equipment for the live stream (YouTube), so it worked smoothly and honestly couldn’t have worked better. Not only were our loved ones able to feel like they were there watching, but we also were able to feel more connected to them knowing they were watching in real time!”
As we progress tentatively through peak wedding season, governments across the world are set to loosen lockdown. What this means for weddings is unclear; however it is obvious that no large-scale ceremonies will be taking place any time soon. Even as wedding plans have to be adjusted, the meaning behind the ceremonies stays the same. Love is the focus.
Joanna Magill
Featured image courtesy of Foto Pettine via Unsplash.
Joanna Magill
Hi, I'm Joanna! I'm a recent UoS French and Spanish linguistics graduate and freelance writer/translator.