We got married during the Pandemic
It wasn’t the wedding we wanted. It was better.
When my husband proposed at the end of 2018 we thought about getting married in 2020. The year 2020 was supposed to become the best year of our lives and we started planning the wedding of our dreams.
And along came Corona.
We picked two dates: the 4th of April and the 8th of August. The April date was the official one at the town hall. Just sign that paper and be legally married.
For the August date, we planned a free ceremony by the river and a big party. We saved up money so we could throw a party the way we picture it to be perfect (in our case that basically means people dancing, escalating, and having a really good time).
As partys are postponed for an indefinite time, I wanted to tell you about the quite special wedding at the town hall in April.
We invited our families and close friends to be with us and have a drink afterward.
And along came Corona.
Pull through or Cancel?
In Germany, weddings with guests weren’t possible anymore. Not even our witnesses could be with us. Which is all okay. We did not want this to become a superspreader event, either.
So we did not want to cancel but also felt sorry for our families to miss out.
What to do?
Live from the Townhall to your Screen
Our solution: set up a live stream and send out the link to the people we wanted to watch. Wow, that sounds exhibitionistic.
When we arrived at the town hall on THE day we were the only couple around. Avoiding contacts and stuff.
In the “wedding room” we set up our live stream while the registrar sorted his paperwork. He sat on the other side of a plexiglass shield with a small opening at the bottom to pass through the documents. We still laugh at the fact it felt a bit like buying tickets at the station.
The whole ceremony it was very quiet. Being in this room full of empty chairs I cannot deny that there were moments of sadness. Especially when the registrar made remarks like “and now, at this stage of the ceremony, the crowd usually starts to giggle” or “and now, under normal circumstances, everyone would be cheering and applauding”. Our audience in the live stream was on mute. So no cheering or applauding. Just him and I, the protagonists of this day.
And then we unmuted
After the official part, now with rings on our hands, we unmuted the live stream and around 30 people cheered into their microphones. Suddenly we realized we have not been alone in this room after all.
Just the two of us with an official person behind a glass shield and our loved ones on Zoom. What a special and unforgettable start into marriage.
Marrying the love of my life makes 2020 one of the best years of my life. Despite the Corona Pandemic.
