The Pandemic Wedding

Marek and I got engaged in August of 2019. After dating long distance for the last three-and-a-half years, we were ready to start the next chapter of our life. The story behind our engagement is actually pretty funny too (it involved a hurricane.) The military life had prepared us to adapt to change, but we never thought this would apply to our wedding plans.

In early March, before everything had shutdown, Marek left for a deployment. I usually dread deployments but I had a lot going on during this one. My bridal shower in Florida was at the end of the month and then in April my mother-in-law was hosting another shower in Michigan. I had planned on packing up my childhood room and moving all my stuff down to Marek’s place while he was gone. I was going to put the finishing details on our wedding, get my dressed altered, and just relax.

God had a different plan.

About mid-March everything started shutting down. I started working remotely and getting worried – but not too worried. We made the decision to postpone both of my showers. My sister ended up hosting a virtual shower for me. Both my family and Marek’s family surprised me one Saturday via Zoom. It was a memorable shower that I will always remember.

Around mid-April, I will still working remotely with no set date to return to the office. That is when I started worrying. Because Marek was deployed, we had very limited communication to talk about what we should do. We were able to come up with a backup plan but we decided to wait till the end of the month to make a decision.

May rolled around quickly and decision time was fast approaching. We were able to talk on the phone briefly, and we decided that for the health and safety of our family and friends, we were going to go with our backup plan: a small ceremony with our parents and siblings. We would host a big party and blessing of our wedding next year when it would be safe to do so.

It was not an easy decision to make, but it was the right one. I am not going to lie; I struggled with it for a while. Marek came home from his deployment and we were able to talk about how we were feeling. We both agreed that it was disappointing, but we also appreciated the beauty in our new plan.

Marek and I met on Catholic Match. Our faith is an important part of our relationship.  When the pandemic started and I realized that our plans for the wedding might have to change, I remember emailing Marek and telling him that no matter what happened, all I truly cared about was getting to celebrate the sacrament of marriage with him. A wedding is so much more than the party that follows. It’s about the beginning of a marriage and celebrating our love for one another in the presence of God, while praising Him for all of His blessings.

We are so blessed to have family and friends who supported our decision and can’t wait to celebrate us next year. We are blessed to have a supportive bridal party who threw me my virtual shower and threw Marek a virtual bachelor party.

And more importantly we are blessed to share our love for one another.

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