Positive experiences among the chaos

Hey Jana, despite Covid and FMIL being on hospice, we had a really intimate and beautiful commitment ceremony so she could be apart of it. We are having our minimony in exactly 1 month with immediate families (parents & siblings) and we are planning an even better celebration with friends and family next Spring. We switched to a different venue for our vow renewal and are able to add a few more details. We are excited as we have more time to plan and save to have 3 ceremonies and a celebration in the end

What are some uplifting positive things you’ve encountered?

Delaying our wedding was definitely a very difficult decision, and I was sooo sad, but there was definitely a silver lining. My fiancé and I were very lucky that we weren’t affected financially by the pandemic and a since we pushed our wedding out almost a year we were able to save more money and upgrade things we weren’t able to afford before. I also had more time to get in shape, I’ve lost 25 pounds since March.

We are now having 2 weddings which is kind've exciting. We are having a minimony in October with about 30 guests and our big wedding in March with over 100 (if restrictions allow). Each ceremony will be different with different outfitsm decorations, colors etc

Lol, for my fiancé the big positive of live-streaming the ceremony is he now believes he has free reign to invite everyone he has ever wanted to no holds bar to the Zoom room since “we won’t be feeding them so why not?” For an introvert, he sure is enjoying sharing his big day with everyone and it’s cute to see him so excited. 🥰

If I had to be honest, it is really nice to have a small ceremony & reception as a result of the pandemic. My fiance and I are suuuuper introverted so it works out for us for not only that but also our bachelorette/bachelor "weekends" (which will probably just be a picnic for me and a BBQ for him). It also helps to save money.

Because there's generally less planning, we have been able to focus on spending time with our families and even reading a book together in our church community and do pre-marital counseling/homework and try to be ready for marriage, not just the wedding.

I've been trying to lose weight so slowly it's coming off so that's been nice!

We had a miniwedding and we're having our big reception next year/when it's safe. I was a lot less stressed out about the wedding than I would've been with our original plan because there were only 15 people, and I know I'll be less stressed out before the reception because we're already married. Also, we were pretty much stuck in our one-bedroom apartment for four months and we still wanted to get married so I'm even more confident that we can get through anything.

My daughter's wedding date set for June was postponed to August. Her original venue was still not allowed to open by then and she did not want to postpone again, so we found a venue even more beautiful in another county (even closer to home) and they cut their fees in half because so many brides were cancelling and they wanted the business. Every vendor was so attentive (photographer cut fees also). She was able to have 85 guests and the day was more beautiful than the original vision.