Most girls dream of having a big wedding, but what do you do when your dream wedding is planned and a virus has basically shut down the planet? That's exactly what some Marion County couples are facing.
Katie Pickering and her husband to be, Tyler Berry, are set to be married on April 18. Both of them have large families plus their friends, so they had a big wedding planned. Now as the cases of COVID-19 continue to increase, the CDC is recommending gatherings be no larger than 10 people. The couple is now forced to make some unwelcome decisions.
They made the painful choice to scale back the wedding to immediate family to keep the same wedding date. However, they still intend to share the special day with everyone just a few months later when all of this is over. A reception is being planned for the fall.
“It’s very disappointing. Especially as a bride, this is a time in your life you look forward to ever since you were a little girl," Pickering said. "You don’t compare to the ones losing loved ones, of course. You think of the weddings having to be cancelled at this time, the seniors who aren’t going to be able to finish out their year with prom and graduation, it’s just those milestones you can’t wait to experience then to not being able to have it, it’s pretty disappointing."
She said a couple of weeks ago she had a day to be sad, but since then she said she has focused on how to adapt to overcome it and to make the best of the situation.
She knows in the end they will be married and that is what they both want so the day will be very special for them.
“Ultimately it’s you want to get married, and we are going to get married. That’s the whole deal of it," Berry said. "It’s not for anyone else there. It’s going to be for Katie, God and I and that is how it is going to be on April 18 still. That is what keeps us going and being excited."
Tanner Trahan and Clare Herring’s wedding was set for April 25. Herring said after much prayer she and Trahan decided to postpone the wedding until everything calms down.
“We accepted the fact. We wanted to think about everyone else,” Herring said in a phone interview on Monday.
Herring acknowledged what was happening with the virus was out of her and Trahan’s control and the best thing they could do is stay positive.
She said their plans include getting married in their church, so rescheduling it for a later date will not be too hard.
“You do what you have to do,” Herring said.
