I Got Married Anyway During the COVID-19 Pandemic
By: Jackie Schmiedel
Tags: Weddings, Wedding Planning, Covid 19, Coronavirus, Beyourself

May 15, 2020, was the date that I looked forward to for a year and a half. My wedding was supposed to be as perfect as a fairy tale come to life. I waited my entire life for this one day and spent months leading up to it refining every last detail. Not only was this the day I was to marry my best friend, but it also was the tenth anniversary from when I started dating him in high school AND the culmination of fifteen months of breast cancer treatment for me. During my time in treatment, others constantly reminded me of my wedding as an encouragement to get through some difficult days. This wedding signified more than just “becoming one” with the man of my dreams; it also symbolized the end of my fight with my life-changing diagnosis. Determined to make the wedding immaculate, I tirelessly planned every last detail. I am sure that the day would have been flawless too had COVID-19 not taken the world by storm. Those five letters and two numbers are where the story begins.

Like many, COVID-19 started as a whisper in my ear. I knew it would eventually make its way to the United States, but as the virus began to spread, I had concerns about the effect on the wedding. “I’m probably overreacting,” I remember thinking, so I kept that pesky intrusive thought to myself. I figured if I kept that fear inside I could somehow keep the worst-case scenario from occurring. Boy was I wrong, and the downward spiral of my wedding started in late March. In the same week that I lost my job and battled a mystery infection, I got the news from the ceremony site that I could not have our wedding there. I remember feeling like someone had punched me in the gut and immediately felt panicked. I had no idea what to do.

In the coming days, the state of the country became dire; all non-essential businesses shut down and no contact with the outside world became the new norm. Meanwhile, I was scrambling, trying to contact wedding vendors and talking through plans B, C, D, and E with both families. My dress was stuck with the seamstress, the wedding party resided in different states, the tuxedo store was not returning phone calls, and worst of all, both of the families could not surround us on our big day. I tried hard to avoid having the attitude of “woe is me” during the previous fifteen months of treatment and wedding planning, but this was the final straw. I broke down crying one night, upset with the world and the Lord for taking away what had motivated me to fight for my life. I finally crashed and burned. What makes God so incredible, however, is how He can make beauty out of ashes, and that is exactly what He did with my emotional remnants.

My fiancee and I decided that getting married on our ten year anniversary was more important than some other date picked at random. Originally, I was only allowed to have parents and the pastor at the ceremony. I did not think that I could wear my dress, carry flowers, or have that ever so special kiss with my husband because of the strict COVID guidelines on masks. Even with those roadblocks, I made the conscious decision to surrender every detail of the wedding over to the Lord, and He blessed me tenfold. Listed below are some surprises God had in store:

When I went to pick up my unfinished dress from the seamstress, I casually mentioned that we decided to move forward with our original wedding date because of its significance. The seamstress then offered to finish my dress for me with only two weeks until the wedding. My mother found a replica of the bouquet I wanted online. When the bouquet came in, I was stunned; the flowers looked so real! A co-worker of my mother-in-law offered to do my hair and assist with my makeup. Although I did not take her up on the offer, I was incredibly touched by this kind gesture. The original photographer blessed us abundantly by offering her services for that day (while following all social distancing guidelines of course!) My father picked up my mother’s pearls on the day of the wedding so I could walk down the aisle in them. Lastly, because the wedding date was the day that the county went to “yellow”, the church graciously allowed me to have twenty people attend the ceremony. This was by far the biggest blessing because it meant that both sets of parents, grandparents, and all of the siblings could be there to celebrate.

The ceremony itself was beautiful and full of surprises. It was live-streamed for all extended family and friends. As a result, I celebrated our day with more people than we invited to the original wedding! Although those who watched it at home saw a good deal of the ceremony itself, they did not see MY favorite part of the entire evening, the cutting of the cake, or the dances with my loved ones. God’s love for his people was so apparent in that chapel and all of the festivities that day. My wedding day was perfectly imperfect and I would not have had it any other way. In conclusion, I want to say thank you to COVID-19 for giving me the best day of my life. I will forever be thankful that I got married during a worldwide pandemic.