June 20, 2020 - has a lovely ring to it, right? That's what we thought, as we set that as our wedding date, many months ago. But then, someone in China somehow caught a virus from a bat or something in December, and then got on a plane, and now suddenly the whole world is in lockdown due to COVID-19. As of the time of writing, there have been 1,518,719 coronavirus cases worldwide; 88,502 deaths; 435,128 cases in the US with 14,795 deaths; 148,220 cases in Spain (14,792 deaths); here in Australia, 6,052 cases, 50 deaths. New Zealand has completely shut down for 4 weeks (they've got 1,239 cases and 1 death). Australia is in partial lockdown - schools closed early for Easter (and hopefully stay closed); 'non-essential' services e.g. massage parlours, beauty salons, clothing stores - closed; work from home advised; WW workshops via Zoom; panic buying of toilet paper, flour, eggs, rice, UHT milk; social distancing measures enforced - must be 1.5m from another person; only 2 people allowed to visit a household; no one allowed to travel over Easter; only allowed to leave your house for groceries, medical appointments, to care for someone or exercise. Outdoor events like sporting fixtures? Closed. No NRL. No AFL. Olympics have been postponed. Ekka cancelled. Melbourne Cup likely to be cancelled. Funerals? Only 10 mourners allowed. Which brings us to weddings...
Yup, weddings affected too - only allowed 5 people - the celebrant, the couple, and two witnesses. And this is predicted to go on at least for another 6 months! What to do then, when your wedding is only 73 days away?
Well the only thing you can do! You elope, of course!
Which is exactly what we did. With basically less than 24 hours notice!
So I wake up yesterday morning in a bit of a daze - is this really my wedding day? Why do I feel so sad? I realised I was grieving for the wedding celebration we had looked forward to for so long - my zillion bridesmaids (my sisters and best friend, plus the 4 nieces), my lovely dress, the flowers, the beautiful decorations of the church, the bridal entry, the Kookaburra Queen reception, our honeymoon in the Caribbean... and of course none of that was happening now. None. Of course I was upset.
But my lovely sisters, who know me better than I know myself, were there to help. They organised (as much as I protested they shouldn't) a lovely little bridal bouquet, Beck did my hair and make up and we had fun facetiming Mum whilst I got ready. Gabby ready with 'appropriate' music - TNT, Meghan Trainor's No... all the usual stuff, right? Beck organised some grapetise and champagne glasses and we had a right proper girly giggle as I got ready. Then I went to drive myself up to the church - no, they weren't having that! So the 3 of us piled in my car and Beck drove us to the church for 3pm.
Surprise, surprise, but this time the Bride was there before the Groom! And even more surprisingly, my father was there before I was!! Russell appeared a few minutes later though with his daughter in tow as his witness.
It was completely surreal. You just can not make this stuff up. We walked into the main auditorium of the church and were confronted immediately with a wall of toilet paper. Apparently the church had acquired a stash which they were giving out to people in need. On top of that, they had just taken a delivery of a couple hundred Easter eggs... all laid out in the back of the church!
Toddy had set up a laptop with a Zoom link for family and friends to witness the ceremony. It was a pretty quick ceremony too - a brief preamble, the vows and the signing, and that's it. Mum, Mel, Beck and Kevan were watching in the foyer - you're allowed 5 people in the foyer due to social distancing laws regarding square metres of the room. I remember panicking over whether it was "I will" or "I do" that I was supposed to say. Mel had said if Toddy says "Do you..." then it's "I do"... of course Toddy said "Do you...[and then] Will you..." so I went with "I will"! Fortunately a couple of weeks ago we had been shopping for wedding rings - although unfortunately we hadn't got mine, but we did get Russell's, and although we weren't going to do the ring thing, we decided we would. So now my engagement ring doubles as a wedding ring, until we have our big celebration - goodness only knows when that will be...!
Then it was time for the signing - wow, so many bits to sign - and we were suddenly announced as Mr and Mrs Woodford - and everyone unmuted their computers and clapped! And just like that, we were married!
The church had organised a cake, and Russell brought some de-alcoholised champagne, so we had cake and champers - all socially distanced - a couple in the foyer, some outside.. I even got my Star Wars in, as I put on the music for the Throne room for the cutting of the cake!!
Next thing I knew, we had some photos out by the front garden of the church, and up rocks my nephew Harry in his hi-vis work attire. So he had some cake too.
We then hopped into Gertie and drove off to see my 95 year old Grandmother, Russell's mum and my bestie Lou. They had all watched online on the zoom (although I now find out that poor Grandma had no sound whatsoever - but at least she got to witness it)! One of my favourite memories is of Russell's mother, standing and practically jumping for joy on her back verandah, clapping with delight when we came over to see her. So lovely.
We had booked into a hotel in the CBD at Beck and Mel's suggestion - just to try to make the day sort of special - and I'm glad we did. Of course, with all the corona stuff going on, we couldn't eat out at a local restaurant, or indeed even get room service. So UberEats had to suffice - but not before a conference call to the rest of my family who had just randomly scheduled a facetime catch up that evening. Kind of bizarre to be talking to them on my wedding night in my hotel room! Also had a couple of chats with friends from overseas which was lovely.
The next morning (today) we had our boxed breakfast of cereal, a pastry and a biscuit, followed by take away coffee from the Death Star Canteen, before I dropped Russell back home (and back to work) and headed home myself to start to pack.
And that, in all its surreal glory, was our COVID-19 wedding...
