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How my wife and I (our guests, too) survived our pandemic wedding
The most beautiful day of my life also felt like the most selfish.
Inside the ornate building decorated with childhood photos, golden charger plates and candle-lit glass vases, my knees wobbled and I wept as my bride-to-be, cloaked in ivory, strolled down the aisle.
Outside, thousands of people were dying as COVID-19 devastated entire communities, ripping apart families that looked just like ours. At this point, the virus had claimed nearly 300,000 American lives and public health officials scurried to brace the surviving populace for the inevitable surge over Thanksgiving. This, as states counted ballots and the world waited to learn whether the most unfit and tyrannical president in recent memory would snatch a second term.
The tension nationwide was thick. But for us, Nov. 6, 2020 felt unfairly idyllic. It was 73 degrees without a cloud in sight. Our families were there. Our friends were there. And while we’d soon be able to exhale, we anxiously awaited the end to months of careful planning, diligent prayer and the audacious hope that no one would die because they came to our wedding.
I’ll spare you the suspense: this story has a happy ending. No one got sick as a result of our wedding (as far as we know). The day went off without a hitch. Here’s how we did it.
The plan
I proposed to Yvonne, aka “Corn Muffin,” on Nov. 17, 2019 after two years and three months of courting the woman I felt God made just for me. (You can read more about why I proposed here.)
I concocted a not-so-elaborate ruse to get our immediate families in the same place at the same time on a Sunday — an impressive feat given that most of them don’t live near us. To the backdrop of Yvonne’s favorite song (Stevie Wonder’s “As”), I dropped to one knee, belted a sentimental speech I practiced at least three times and presented her with the ring I had purchased five months earlier and held on to until the time was right.
She said yes. We ate. We celebrated. We were elated. And, like most of the world, we were clueless about the pandemic on the horizon.
