Now that it’s crystal clear that hosting a wedding at this time is just not possible due to the spread of COVID-19, we’re sharing the experiences of real couples navigating the re-scheduling or cancellation process in an attempt to help others make informed decisions and to spread our support to all during this time.
Cecily Jaros, who postponed her wedding celebration on May 2nd at Rancho de los Caballeros in Arizona, is sharing how she and her husband, Nick Fasulo, made the final call and decided to have a Zoom wedding in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on their original date.
On March 11th, the couple had their final logistics call with Kris & Tyler Zeman of Konsider it Done. Nick was admittedly distracted during this call, as his phone continuously buzzed with alerts on his phone saying that the NBA season was to be postponed. Four days later, the couple made the decision to postpone, when they heard that the governor of Arizona was banning gatherings of more than 50 people. “We knew this was serious and wanted to make sure our family and friends felt safe and were healthy when we all came together to celebrate our marriage,” Cecily says. “Looking back, it was the obvious right call.”
Kris and Tyler contacted their 12 vendors and their venue and essentially moved the entire three-day weekend of festitivites to late October. Although the new day falls on Halloween, there will be no holiday theme or costumes. However, the welcome dinner is a “Cowboy Casual Cookout,” so people will have the chance to get dressed up in their best Western wear.
With most of April spent coming to terms with their new plan, they still wanted to make things official on their original date. “We had about given up, since San Francisco courthouses were closed for the foreseeable future,” Cecily says. But on April 25th, the Oakland City Clerk announced they were accepting contactless wedding license applications. “We dropped our application off on Monday the 27th, crossed our fingers that it’d be approved by Saturday, and moved forward to plan a wedding in five days.” Thankfully, the application came back approved on Thursday.
When it came to organizing everything, Cecily found herself caring less about the little details and focused more so on savoring the fact that they were able to get married. She ordered a floral arrangement from The Bouqs Co., and her best friend made a makeshift bouquet out of it. She used stems from bouquets that loved ones had sent to commemorate the date to create a little arrangement for her flower girl to carry.
As for her dress, Cecily ordered a few options from Revolve the week-of and ended up wearing a high-neck, lace gown. And for her “something borrowed, blue, and new,” the bride’s sister-in-law gave her a white mask with a little blue gem woven in the inside and made out of fabric used at their wedding.
On the day-of, some of the couple’s friends spread out on blankets, six-feet apart, to witness the park ceremony. Cecily’s older brother officiated, and her sister-in-law read a poem for the occasion. They also Zoomed in their families and close friends who couldn’t be there with them.
After the ceremony, they all cheers’d with mimosas and danced to “Crowded Table” by The Highwomen—“not our planned first dance song, but one whose lyrics have spoken to me amidst all that’s going on in the world,” the bride says. “It felt perfect.” Then, to keep one tradition, they cut a beautiful wedding cake that Nick’s mom had sent from Butter& in Maine.
Looking back at everything, Cecily and Nick are so happy they had their “perfectly imperfect” celebration. “We cannot wait to celebrate and give a full recap of six months of marriage after being together 24/7 in quarantine, when we finally do see all our loved ones in October!”
