Ivana and Samuel | Classic, Colorful Quarantine Wedding

An intimate, joyful gathering despite COVID restrictions.

Ivana and Samuel met while salsa dancing. Their partnership on the dance floor led to a year of friendship before pursuing a romantic relationship. Their dating relationship, engagement, and wedding all started in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. There is no doubt that Christ has been with them through every step of their vocation.

Ivana prayed a 54-day Rosary novena prior to their engagement, asking for the Blessed Mother’s help to be holy, joyful, and pure in their relationship.

When it came time to consider how the global pandemic of COVID-19 would affect their original wedding plans, Ivana and Samuel were able to maintain their holy, joyful, and pure intentions for their wedding—and each other—as they made new arrangements for their wedding day.

“I felt that God had been preparing me throughout our engagement to surrender and trust, and this felt like the ultimate lesson.”

From the Bride:

Things turned out so differently that what we had imagined. We had our wedding date set for May 9th, 2020, but with the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place restrictions when March rolled around, there was fear of not seeing each other for two months while we waited to say our vows.

Because we had already finished our wedding prep and felt that what we most wanted was to be together, we sought wisdom from our priest to ask if marrying us sooner would be a possibility. When he first replied that "yes," he would marry us as soon as we wanted as an emergency sacrament, we were immediately overwhelmed with joy and excitement—followed by disappointment and sadness at the thought of losing our heavily dreamed of, articulately planned wedding ceremony and reception complete with our dearly beloved family and friends surrounding us.

After giving it a night to think and pray over the decision, we woke up with a firm understanding that this was indeed the right decision: asking for God's blessing and grace to be united in the Sacrament of Matrimony immediately was what we truly desired.

In a time when sacramental grace is scarce, we felt it was so deeply special to enter into the sacrament of marriage, both for us and for others. When God unites a man and woman in marriage, it is a grace for both the couple and for the world, a sign of God's love for his people, his dearly beloved.

We felt that by partaking in this sacrament of marriage, we would be doing something beyond us; we would be accepting a gift of God to the world.

Although we did without many of the details that we had originally planned for our special day, we managed to find a last minute florist who arranged a bridal bouquet, bouquet for Our Lady, a couple of center pieces, and some boutonnières. We were also able to ask our caterer to prepare a much smaller meal in lieu of the down payment we had already given him. With one of my dear friends and Samuel's sisters, we were able to photograph, video, and even live stream our wedding to include family and friends who were able to safely join the celebration from their homes.

The reception was an intimate reception at my parents' home, complete with speeches, toasts, and the first dances. It was truly a beautiful day that we will remember for the rest of our lives; a story to pass on to many generations to come.

I learned to surrender my ideal of what my perfect wedding would look like and let God be the author of our romance. During our engagement season, there were many elements I wanted to control and I felt that God was continuously asking me to let go and to trust Him.

When this huge change came about, at first I wanted to throw my hands up in the air and scream: "This isn't fair!" But then I learned to lean into it and accept our new reality. I may not have had the perfect party and celebration that I had always dreamed of, but we celebrated love that day in an intimate and beautiful way and now I am so grateful to spend every second with the man who continuously shows me God's love and affection every day.

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Ivana and Samuel | Classic, Colorful Quarantine Wedding

An intimate, joyful gathering despite COVID restrictions.

From the Bride:

SPOKEN BRIDE