We had to cancel our weddings due to coronavirus, but we won’t let our plans be ruined
WEDDING season may be upon us but this year there are no church bells ringing out or champagne glasses being clinked. The global pandemic has meant the Government has banned all weddings here indefinitely – and the global lockdown is affecting engaged couples all over the world.
Those affected include Princess Beatrice, who has halted plans to marry fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi on May 29.
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A month into the national crisis, how are couples coping with rearranging their big day – and dealing with the stress?
Here, four brides tell JOELY CHILCOTT how they are faring.
Victoria & Elliot: Postponed to April 2021
COUNCIL worker Victoria Andrews, 25, lives in Droylsden, Gtr Manchester, with her fiancé Elliot Hall, 26, who is furloughed from his job at a wholesaler’s, and their two-year-old son Henry. They have had to postpone their July wedding because Victoria, who is in the vulnerable category, has been told she must self-isolate for at least 12 weeks. She says:
"MAKING the decision to cancel our wedding was devastating, but I knew I couldn’t risk my health – and maybe even my life – to tie the knot.
"I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease ten years ago and it is managed with powerful immuno-suppressant drugs.
"This means I’m classed as extremely vulnerable, and I am one of the 1.5million people who received a Government letter saying to stay at home for 12 weeks.
"When I received that letter I knew there was no way our wedding could go ahead. Elliot and I got engaged in 2018 after he proposed to me at the top of Liverpool Cathedral, and our big day was booked for July 4 this year.
"We had invited 150 guests to the venue, Bolholt Country Park Hotel in Bury. Elliot’s stag trip to Tenerife and my hen trip to Mallorca in early May had been arranged, as had our honeymoon to Spain.
"Even as the coronavirus crisis worsened in early March, I still didn’t think our wedding would be affected.
"But being told to shield, and the whole country being put into lockdown, brought home just how serious this was.
"I realised I just couldn’t risk my health. Also, my nanna, who I love dearly, is 79 and vulnerable, so I couldn’t place her in danger too.
"Elliot and I made the heart-breaking decision to cancel at the end of March.
Hannah & Graeme: Wedding date now May 2021
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"Choice was limited and we had to go with a Sunday in October. We were also notified that we will need to give notice of marriage again, as it will have expired by then.
"We then set about contacting all our suppliers. They have also been brilliant and really accommodating. The hen and stag do’s have been cancelled, but Dan had a virtual stag do with his friends on April 11.
"Partners were invited, too, and on the night it was five couples and his brother. We all had to dress up. We dressed as Mario and Luigi. Then there were two Tiger Kings (Joe Exotic from the Netflix series), a nurse, a cat and other random costumes.
"During the day, six of the stags changed their Facebook profile pictures to a photo of Dan and each one said: “Ten likes = one shot.”
"Some of the photos received 70+ likes, so the drinking was a challenge! James, Dan’s brother, then did a This Is Your Life with old photos, we had quizzes, the Mr And Mrs game and the keepy uppy challenge with loo roll. It was fun, although the hangover the next day was not so great.
"As for money, we haven’t worked out exactly what we have lost but it might be about £500. It has definitely taken the fun out of planning the wedding.
"We are still concerned our new date in October might also not go ahead and, until we hear more, we aren’t doing any more on the wedding."
Jennifer & Stuart: No new date yet
YOUTH support worker Jennifer Sullivan and her fiancé Stuart Ingram, a 30-year-old presentation manager, from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, were set to fly to Orlando to get married at Disneyworld on March 16. Their wedding and flights were cancelled just four days before the big day. Jennifer, 28, says:
"WE both love Disney and I’ve always wanted to go to one of the parks. We’d planned to have the wedding there, then make the most of the rides and create memories to last a lifetime. So it’s been a complete nightmare. I cried every single day for four days after it happened.
"Stuart proposed when we were on holiday in California in 2018 and we’ve spent two years organising the big day that was going to be such a happy occasion.
"The wedding cost us around £20,000 and, while we’ll get most of our money back, we’ve decided we can’t ask family to pay to fly to America again so we can’t now have the Disney wedding we had dreamed of.
"I had decorations specially made with the date on and my bridesmaids are younger relatives, including my daughter Evie, who is nine.
"They will have outgrown their dresses by the time we get a new date.
"My mum was in the air flying to Orlando when US President Donald Trump announced he was locking their borders to UK travellers. My stepdad, his partner, my sister and my niece were already there and had to fly home.
"We both feel so responsible, even though it’s not our fault.
"We’re trying to be stoical about it. None of us have the virus, thank goodness, but while Stuart wants to rebook and get married, a bit of me feels I’ve had enough of it all.
"The thought of going back to square one and starting all over again is heartbreaking. But once the tears subsided, we both agreed at least it will make for an interesting best man’s speech."
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