Even a pandemic cannot put a pin on their wedding plans. One couple in the Philippines was able to pull off having a Zoom wedding.
In her story, you’ll read:
- How the pandemic prevented their well-planned wedding
- Celebrating the momentous occasion via Zoom
It was July 2019 when I finally responded to Rain’s (my then-fiancee) I love you which made us boyfriend-girlfriend.
We were childhood friends before we got together and had a long-distance relationship. The set-up was challenging for us – to think that he was my first boyfriend. We never had a chance to date, travel together, get to know each other in person, and so on. We did that online.
The engagement
Two months later, Rain and I had a chance to celebrate our birthdays together. He went to my place with his mom and surprised me with a ring.
By then, we were looking forward to December 18, 2020 – our wedding day. We already started saving and preparing for the wedding.
We had everything planned – our wardrobe, entourage, guests list, honeymoon, etc. We even paid thousands of pesos for a down payment for our wedding and reception venue, wedding coordinator, food, and other wedding requirements just to secure everything that we wanted for our big day.
We were so excited. We saved money and prepared everything for our wedding. Rain was so supportive because I really wanted to achieve my dream of having a Christian garden wedding.
Then came the pandemic
Here comes the year 2020, the year we were waiting for. We were so excited and thrilled, but all of a sudden the pandemic that was COVID-19 hit the country.
Every establishment was forced to close. Businesses needed to stop and all our wedding plans – poof! In my heart at that time I was asking God why. “What’s going to happen to our wedding?” “Will it still push through?”
Indeed, many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. -Proverbs 19:21
The supposedly Christian garden wedding in December became a Zoom Wedding in June.
I tell you, never in my wildest dreams did I think of having a Zoom Wedding. It was never our plan because it was God’s plan for us. And we believe that it is far more beautiful than what we have planned.
It says in the bible that “God made everything beautiful in its time.” Indeed, our pandemic wedding turned out to be so beautiful.
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Our Zoom Wedding
Our wedding pushed through in the midst of the pandemic. We didn’t let COVID-19 stop our love for each other.
We had a total of 10 guests including the officiating minister, his wife and his assistant. We had only one pair of principal sponsors who also served as our parents during the wedding.
My workmates became our entourage, videographer and photographer. They were the only people who joined us at our wedding physically.
Meanwhile, we had over 100 visitors online via a Zoom meeting. Our closest family and friends were able to witness our union via a Zoom link that we shared.
We had an unlimited number of guests because of our Zoom wedding. Those family and friends that we thought that we couldn’t invite for financial and logistical reasons were able to attend virtually.
And because it was a virtual wedding, all the other elements were also virtual – including the reception! Our online guests prepared and ate their own food. It was much more economical! Zoom wedding really works!
Zoom wedding in the Philippines
Yes, a traditional wedding is still different, especially if you want to have real witnesses physically with you to witness your exchange of vows.
But we’d like to think that this was God’s will. And our wedding turned out to be the most beautiful, solemn, and intimate wedding we could ever dream of. And because of technology, every person that we want to witness our wedding was present on that day.
Almost two years have passed since our Zoom wedding. This coming June, we will be celebrating our second-year wedding anniversary.
After our wedding, we had this realization; to some extent, the pandemic has been a great struggle and caused us too much pain. But for some people, especially to us, the pandemic has been a great blessing in disguise.
If not for the pandemic, Zoom weddings would not be a thing. That’s why we praise God for His wonderful and beautiful plans for us and for His perfect timing.
Republished with permission from theAsianparent Philippines.