In April 2019, my fiance and I got engaged and we were so excited to begin planning our wedding for October of 2020! We planned a big, fall wedding with pumpkins, apple cider, and lots of family and friends. Unfortunately, COVID had different plans for us and we have had to cancel our big, in-person wedding and plan a last-minute virtual wedding instead!
We still plan on getting married on October 23, 2020, our original wedding date, but our wedding will be vastly different than everything that we had envisioned for our big day. Here’s how we’ve modified our wedding in order to still be able to get married during this pandemic:
Cancelled our Venue, Booked a Virtual Wedding Service
My fiancé and I cancelled our 200 person venue because we saw no reason to have a venue for 200 people when we cannot have more than 50 people at our wedding, as stated by New York law. For safety purposes, we plan to only have about 30 people at our wedding – just immediate family and our wedding party. However, we still wanted all of our guests that we initially planned to invite to still be able to come, so we hired a virtual wedding service called Wedfuly to coordinate our virtual wedding, complete with our ceremony and a reception with a first dance and all.
Moved our Wedding to our Church
Thankfully, my fiancé and I attend a church that is fully accessible. Just a few years ago our church built a ramp to the stage, so I am thrilled that we are able to have a small, intimate ceremony in our church where my fiancé and I are both able to roll onto the stage. Our pastor had planned to officiate our wedding anyway, and it is really nice for us to be able to have our “back up” wedding at our church.
Coordinating Masks with Bridesmaids Dresses!
Never in my life did I ever think I would need to pick out face masks to coordinate with bridesmaids dresses, but I never thought I’d live in a world where we experienced a pandemic either. So one big change to the wedding has been picking out coordinating masks for bridesmaids, groomsmen, and even a mask to go with my wedding dress!
Nixed the Buffet, Opted for Plated Meals
My fiancé and I were initially very excited for our buffet dinner at our wedding reception. We had planned to have a lowered buffet that was fully wheelchair accessible for us and for our many wheelchair-using guests, and we had planned to have so many incredible options to eat! However, because of the pandemic, in order to keep things as safe as possible, we have switched to a seated dinner with plated meals for our small group of in-person guests. We will be having dinner after our virtual ceremony and reception ends.
While our wedding is going to be much smaller, and much different than everything we’ve dreamed, we’re still thrilled to be getting married!
About Stephanie Woodward: Stephanie is a brand ambassador for Quantum Rehab® and works as a disability rights activist. She has received many awards for helping communities become more accessible, as well as for her actions in fighting for the rights of disabled individuals as it relates to Medicaid and other support services. Click here to learn more about Stephanie.