My Pandemic Wedding

Like everyone else, I was completely blindsided by the pandemic.  At the beginning of March 2020, we did not even begin to realize how life was going to change for the world.  People expected to be home for two weeks, at most a month.  But as the cases were rising, everything changed.  By the end of March, I had lost my job, got kicked out of my apartment at 3 am, and in the midst of my life falling apart, I was trying to plan a wedding for the Summer.

Planning a wedding during a pandemic is not a situation I ever imagined myself being in and it is not one that I recommend.  Trying to plan a wedding during that time was like a dog chasing its own tail– you aren’t getting anywhere.  The moment you have a plan, new orders come out and wash it all away.  As soon as you find a great caterer, they close up shop.  The moment you find the perfect venue, it is no longer available. It was month after month of doors being closed in every direction, in every possible way and the tentative wedding date was getting closer and closer.  At every turn, you feel as if you cannot win.  People constantly asked me “What’s the plan?” and “are you so excited?” and I had no answers for them.  I felt hopeless, confused, and rung out like a rag.  How could I be excited about a wedding that I could not plan and did not know when it was going to happen?

Like everyone else, I didn’t know what to do.  My mind loomed with questions like, “Am I suppose to get married right now?”; “Should we wait until everything opens up again?”;  “Where are we going to live?”;  “What are we going to do for jobs?”

In the midst of my confusion, I remembered something– the true purpose for weddings.  I realized that I had become so swept up in the logistics of it all that I have forgotten to remember what it is all for.  A wedding is about two people committing their lives to one another before God and man.  A wedding is about declaring to the other people that no matter what happens in life, you won’t ever leave or give up.  Through thick and thin, you are there and they are there, too.

After remembering that beautiful truth, all my hopelessness, confusion, and frustration melted away.  All I need was a pastor, some witnesses, and my fiancé so that I could declare before God and man that I am committed to my fiancé, Thomas, till death do us part.  On July 10th at 3:35 pm, I said these words to my now-husband:

I, Sierra, take you, Thomas, to be my wedded husband,

leaving my parents I cleave to you apart from all others in the covenant of marriage.

I promise to submit to you as unto Christ,

to follow you, to cherish you, and obey you.

I promise to remain faithful to you in thought and in action,

to continue to learn to better serve and prefer you

and to live with you in a respectful way.

I promise to honor and esteem you,

to provide companionship for you,

and to delight myself in you, from this day forward,

in joy and in sorrow,

abundance and in want,

through trials and tribulations,

as God conforms us to the image of his son,

with death alone breaking this covenant.

A few moments after we exchanged our vows, we were husband and wife, committed to one another in every possible way. Our wedding day was not what we expected, but it was exactly what we needed.  Our wedding became so much more than the day itself but only the start to the future we are committed to building together and there is no one I’d rather build a future with than my Thomas.