A Covid-era wedding story.
THEIR WAY, SOME DAY
A COVID-ERA WEDDING STORY
It’s a story familiar to so many couples in the last year: you can make all the wedding plans you like but a global pandemic will change everything. And one of our own, our designer Joe, experienced it firsthand. Here, Joe and his fiancé Michi share what happened for them, what the plan is next and how it feels to plan your big day when the universe has other plans.
Hi guys, let’s start at the beginning – where and how did you meet?
Joe: Well, Michi had just moved over to the UK from Italy to work in the hospital and we found each other through a dating app, as most people do these days.
Joe, what’s your favourite thing about Michi? And Michi, yours about Joe?
J: I love Michi’s honesty and directness. This is something I learnt from him and it really goes hand-in-hand in a healthy relationship.
Michi: The thing I love the most about Joe is his kindness towards any living creature, his love for nature and animals.
Do you have an engagement story to share?
M: We got engaged while visiting friends in Brighton, it was quite spontaneous and was more of a conversation than a proposal I guess. Our friends Cathy and Robyn were married over 15 years ago by their close friend Dendy, the same person who will marry us, and this idea felt extremely right for both of us. And because we got engaged in Brighton, we decided to get married there too. We chose Brighton Town Hall and booked it for New Year’s Eve. We were all planning on being together for NYE anyway, so it made sense.
So, can you tell us about your original wedding plans? Did Covid have any influence on the plan when you first made it?
J: Covid definitely influenced our plans, it gave us an excuse to not do something big. I come from a large family where weddings were happening every other weekend, and I’ve always felt that big weddings were more about putting on a very expensive show for the guests.
We decided that we’d rather do something small and put the money we would save towards buying our first home (which we actually just did!). It also made so much sense that Cathy and Robyn will be our witnesses, and the plan was, and still is, to have just the four of us on the day.
At some point we will go back to Michi’s hometown in Forlimpopoli and have a small Italian celebration with our families there as well.
What were you both going to wear? And how did you decide on that?
J: We browsed for inspiration on Pinterest of course but still we had no idea which style of suits we would go for in the end. We didn’t necessarily want to match, we only knew that we wanted to feel very happy with our own choices. I found a Barberis woollen flannel suit – which would definitely keep me warm next to the Brighton coast! – while Michi went for a Barberis pure wool suit in blue.
And what happened to your original plan?
M: We nervously watched the coronavirus updates every single day to see which way the pandemic was heading. London, where we live, went into tier 4 pretty much overnight but thankfully the wedding could still happen with Brighton remaining in tier 3. But then, four days before the big day, Brighton joined London in tier 4, so it was all off.
How did that feel?
J: We always knew that things could go this way, so when it happened we were frustrated but not sad. We know it will happen when the timing is right, which could be at any moment now, so it’s actually pretty exciting that we don’t have a fixed date.
What did you do on the day your wedding was supposed to be? Did you mark it somehow?
J: We didn’t do anything special on the day. It wasn’t like we had to cancel a big celebration that we’d been planning for months like other couples have, so it just felt like another day in the end. It was New Year’s Eve, though, so we had a reason to drink some champagne anyway!
And what’s the plan now?
M: Since the new government roadmap has been announced it now means that we can go ahead and rebook our wedding. We’re looking at doing it in the summertime, but we don’t have a confirmed date just yet…
And lastly, have you got any advice for other people in the same situation?
J: I would honestly just know that your wedding is going to happen at some point and to be excited about that prospect.
