Jesús and Melissa's wedding in Edmonton, Alberta

The story of our wedding

So...Covid stopped our wedding ceremony and reception (we postponed early March), but we still wanted to have our legal wedding in a place that had meaning to us. We still will have all the bells and whistles once COVID is over :) About a week before we pulled the plug and hired a marriage commissioner who would be ok with performing a simple socially distant marriage. We invited two close friends to be our witnesses, and they, in turn, became our photographers and videographers. It was a casual affair but beautiful. We recited simple, pre-arranged vows in Kinnaird Park in Edmonton. If you don't know Kinnaird park, it is a small one, overlooking the river, and with a breathtaking view of downtown. My husband and I had gone on our first date as a walk to that park and also became engaged in that park, so it was special to have our legal marriage there. One really neat detail that we had never noticed before was that the bench where we had our first kiss, and where we got married, had a plaque on it dedicating it to the 50th wedding anniversary of a different couple! We set up a table to sign our papers, and to have our laptop setup for a zoom call so our close family could watch as well. Once all our vows were spoken and papers signed, we surprised our two guests with Corona beers and all shared a drink as a mini reception while we took a few pictures to commemorate (coronas to make light of everything we've been facing with our plans). I wanted to post this to share with all of you brides and grooms of this pandemic, that you've got this! Let your love shine brighter than the nastiness of what we all have to go through right now. My partner and I can't wait for our big ceremonial day, but we are so happy we still have our special anniversary!