How We Had Our COVID-19 Long-Distance Wedding
With the closing of the border, it made our wedding a little more complicated than we planned.
There's no doubt COVID-19 made a huge impact on our lives within the last year. We were definitely no exception.
My husband and I got engaged late last year and were set on having an Autumn wedding - as a small homage for our love of Spooky Season!
With a short time between our engagement and our marriage, my husband and I spent a lot of the time preparing for our special day; looking for venues, picking our wedding colors and decor, and even making and sending out invitations. Thousands of dollars were already easily spent. But a third way into our wedding planning, COVID-19 really began and things were starting to shut down.
For more than four years of our relationship, my husband and I were in a long-distance relationship; him being in America and me living in Canada. We would see each other every six months to fulfill our healthy relationship.
When the borders started closing down, we were sure they were going to open eventually so both of our families could celebrate our special day together. However, as months passed and COVID-19 started to spread more and more, we were slowly starting to lose faith. We needed to think of different options.
For starters, my family is very religious - especially my mother. And one of the main things she requested was we had a church wedding before moving in together. (Both of my parents are from the Philippines and it's very common to only move in with your significant other once you're married.) As a sign of respect, it was crucial for us to have a church wedding. The only option that was fully available for us to get married twice: civil marriage and a church wedding.
With the borders - specifically the Canadian border, it was almost impossible for my husband to come to Canada for our church wedding. Therefore, we only really had that one option.
Because I'm dual-citizen (American and Canadian) and am now residing in America but previous to our marriage, I was residing in Canada, it would have been the only way we could have gotten married; despite our families not enjoying it together.
The idea of two marriages was brought to our attention in June when other American-Canadian couples were struggling to have their 2020 wedding as well and we're opting for this alternative. As we looked through this option all summer, we decided to go ahead with it.
At the end of August, I hopped on a plane from Canada to America for three weeks, and in mid-September, we had our civil wedding. It was very personal and intimate and we had my husband's brother and sister to be our witnesses. The day after, we got in our car and drove to Canada for another three weeks for our church wedding - mind you, my husband is only an American citizen, so the only way he could cross the border was if we were married.
Shortly after our quarantine in Canada was over, Toronto's Premier Doug Ford announced that social gatherings should not be more than 50 indoors - however, it was changed to 10 people on our wedding day.
Luckily, we were only planning on having my immediate family. With so little of us, everyone played multiple parts in our wedding, and my husband and I were very thankful for it.
Most definitely, it was not the wedding neither of us had ever dreamed of, but with both of our families being a part of both our weddings, it really made us appreciate that sense of community better than fancy decor or an expensive dress.
At the end of the day, our wedding was nothing like we had planned, but we still had our families be a part of our special days. And we'd pick that over something expensive, any day.
About the Creator
Jessica Gomez
Wife and Dog Mom
Freelance Writer, Horror Junkie, and huge Book Nerd.
Instagram: @terrifyinglyfictional
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