Couples forced to plan weddings around pandemic

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

Nothing can stop true love — not even a global pandemic.

COVID-19 is forcing 2020 brides to get creative, but it won’t prevent them from saying ‘I do.’

Jenna Dunlay of White Oak originally planned to have her bridal shower Saturday.

However, because of the coronavirus, she and her family decided last month to cancel the shower and opted to celebrate on the day of the event with a family dinner.

Her mother, Jody, had something extra special up her sleeve.

Jenna and her fiancé John pulled into the driveway of her parents’ home for dinner and instead of being greeted with hugs, they were welcomed by an oversized sign and a tent with a table set for two in the driveway.

A parade of family and friends were waiting to drive by the party to help them celebrate.

“When I realized what was happening, I was so overwhelmed with love,” Jenna said. “Words cannot even express how blessed I am to have such amazing family and friends.”

Jenna, 27, and her fiancé John Turek, 28, of Elizabeth Township are planning to tie the knot Aug. 1.

If all goes as planned, they will exchange vows at Round Hill Church in Elizabeth with immediate family in attendance.

They anticipate having to postpone their reception, with 250 guests invited, at the Antonelli Event Center in Irwin.

“If we are unable to have our reception as originally planned, we will postpone the celebration until next year,” Jenna said. “We want to be able to celebrate our big day with all of our family and friends when it is safe to do so.”

Being a COVID-19 bride has been stressful, she said.

“It has been difficult being a being a bride during this time because of the unknown of what the restrictions will be come Aug. 1,” she said. “We have been hopeful that everything will go as planned, though realistically we know that we will have to change our original plan.

“I have been trying to go with the flow of things because I know regardless of what plans we have to change, I still get to marry my best friend.”

Though the future is uncertain, she has no worries.

“I can honestly say I have no worries moving forward,” she said. “I know our family and friends will make John and I feel just as special on our wedding day regardless of the circumstances.”

A Rostraver Township couple also didn’t let COVID-19 stand in their way.

Taylor (Welsh) Talbert, 29, and her husband, Adam, became husband and wife May 9 in the middle of a field surrounded by their immediate friends and family.

Extended family and friends attended virtually through Zoom.

“The original plans were to have the ceremony and reception on the same day at Christian Klay Winery,” she said. “The ceremony was supposed to be on the hill in the vineyard and the reception in the barn above their tasting room.

“With everything in the world going on, we just realized how things can be so uncertain and you never know what can happen, so we decided we didn’t want to wait to get married. So we decided to keep our original date.”

Still, she is upset that everyone on her guest wasn’t able to attend the ceremony in person.

“I feel like the thing I missed most is not getting to have all my friends and family at my ceremony,” Taylor said. “Even though everyone has been so understanding and the day was still perfect, it would have been nice for everyone to have been able to be there.”

Friends and family were invited back to the couple’s home where a surprise was waiting for them.

Soundwaves Event Group, originally set to play their reception, surprised the couple with a dance party.

“Our DJ surprised us with a really special introduction, first dance and cake cutting,” she said.

Stacy Johnson, owner of Soundwaves Event Group, said she and her husband, Jim, wanted to do something special for their couples in light of COVID-19 changing their plans.

“We knew they where still getting married on their original date and we wanted to do something to make the day even more memorable for them,” Johnson said. “They had no idea what we were doing.”

Despite an impromptu reception and intimate ceremony, planning a wedding during the pandemic has been tough.

“It’s not knowing and the uncertainty of it all,” Taylor said. “We still don’t even know if we will be able to have our reception Sept. 5.

“You put all this work into something and then all of your original plans get ruined. It was very hard for me at first to accept that things couldn’t go the way I planned.”

Shawna Pasinski, 48, and her fiancé, Jeff Culp, 61, of Liberty Borough planned to fly to Las Vegas next month for a destination wedding June 9.

Seven of their family and friends were going to hop on a plane with them, and more than 100 others were excited for a hometown reception.

The flights and rooms were paid for when things started to close down and now their wedding looks a lot different.

Instead of the Las Vegas strip, the couple plans to get married at Monroeville Park West on June 6, followed by a small reception at their home with 23 family members and close friends.

“My Plan B was very stressful trying to figure out,” Pasinski said.

From opting to a self-uniting marriage license, which allows the couple to marry without an officiant, to ordering dresses — six of them — online until she found the right one, to spending money on decorations for a reception that can’t be used or returned, Pasinski said she doesn’t need a large wedding to be happy.

“This is my second marriage and his third,” she said. “We didn’t need a big day. By the end of our first date I knew he was my forever.

Her daughter, Ashley Pasinski, and Jeff’s brother, Jay, will sign their marriage license.

Her son, Nick Colbert, will walk her down the aisle.

They are planning a larger-than-life Las Vegas-themed reception for their family and friends July 10, 2021, at the Liberty Borough Fire Hall.

Alexis Halechko, 25, and her fiancé, Dustin Hayes, 23, both of Donora, planned to get married May 30, but have postponed the ceremony until Oct. 24.

They were planning to have to the reception at the Valley Inn Social Hall in Monongahela with 100 friends and family invited to attend.

“I was recently thinking I should be really excited because my wedding would be less than two weeks away, but it’s not and that is OK,” Halechko said. “I had to postpone my bridal shower twice, and that’s when we decided to move the wedding date just in case back in April. Now here we are today in the midst of COVID-19.

“Hopefully by October we will still be able to have it. If not, we will postpone until next year.”

Switching seasons along with her wedding date has been most difficult.

“It’s hard redoing all the planning and the not knowing if we will be able to have our wedding in October and dealing with the different season changes,” she said. “We went from wanting to have an outdoor wedding to possibly having an indoor wedding based off of the weather that day.”

Kim Zukauckas, 34, of Monongahela, and her fiancé Verle Haines, 35, of Cecil are hoping their Plan B holds up in July.

They were supposed to be married May 2, but have postponed the ceremony until July 11. They had to deal with other changes along the way since COVID-19 hit the region.

“Our original plans are to get married at First Presbyterian Church of Monongahela, with our reception at the Hilton Meadowlands in Washington,” Zukauckas said. “We invited about 120 guests, but a lot has changed since then.”

Instead of a picture perfect day, she is unsure what her wedding will look like.

“As of right now being in the yellow phase of the governor’s orders, we cannot have our wedding at the church unless it’s strictly 25 people and everyone wears a mask and follows social distancing,” she said. “We cannot have our reception at the hotel and my bridal shower has also been postponed twice.”

After talking it over with her future husband and family, they decided to postpone one more time and hope for the best.

“We’ve weighed through multiple options for a Plan B from pushing everything back for a second time and hoping for the best to letting go of our big reception and holding a small, intimate ceremony and reception outdoors with close friends and family only.

“We also thought about holding the big reception next year or not even having one at all.”

Zukauckas said she has dreamed of her wedding day for years and never could have expected a pandemic would get in the way.

“You dream of this day since you are a little girl,” she said. “You have this beautiful vision of your wedding day and you never imagine something of this magnitude happening in the midst of it all.

“You never know what is going to happen as the days go by and everything is constantly changing and it is completely out of your control.”

Laura D’Emidio of Monongahela, and her fiancé, Scott Usher of Perryopolis have been forced to change just about everything except their vendors — but it’s working out better than originally planned.

“We were supposed to get married Saturday, but have postponed until Aug. 22,” she said. “Originally we were at Linden Hall and we expected about 160 people, but we have had to change the date and location.

“Thankfully I was able to keep all of my vendors except our photographer, but a friend of has stepped in and it is even more special because she has done all of our milestones and just recently started doing weddings.”

Now the plan is to have their ceremony at Vinoski Winery in Rostraver Township with a reception at The Lakeside in the Crystal Ballroom.

“We didn’t need a limo before, but now since there are two different locations we needed one, “ she said. “I was lucky when I found a trolley party bus.

“It actually all worked out for the best with the changes.”

Still, she knows everything might have to be changed again.

“What if August isn’t safe enough for us to have the wedding?” D’Emidio said. “I don’t think I can handle planning a third wedding. Planning the first two was already stressful enough. If it doesn’t happen in August, we may just do an old-school courthouse wedding and have a party later.”

For Dana Marie Galiffa, 36, of Donora and her fiancé, Tyler Remington Smail, 31, of Parks Township, the only thing certain is that they are getting married.

Despite having to alter their plans for their ceremony and reception, they will say “I do” on June 27, their original date. But there will just be 25 people watching instead of 290.

“Our plans have changed several times and they are still changing as we move into the different stages of the COVID-19 plan,” Galiffa said. “We hope that we can last minute invite more family if we open up to the green phase, but will be live streaming our wedding on Facebook and hopefully YouTube for all of our friends and family who cannot make it.

“We have been rolling with each setback that we have faced and though it hasn’t been easy at times, we have a very strong faith in God and believe that everything is going to go fall into place. What is certain is that we are getting married and committing ourselves to God and each other.”