The story of a boy and a girl....... trying to get married during a world pandemic.
This is me and my fiance. My name is Alexis and I am marrying that cute Polynesian. His name is Noa. We met the spring semester of my junior year but we actually didn't talk much until about another four months later. We went on our first date in July of 2019 to a cute little burger joint we have in little Cedar City, Utah and then to the park that sits right next door to the restaurant. We actually later got engaged in that same park about five months after our first date.
After we got engaged I started planning our wedding for May of 2020. Picking out colors, finding the right bridesmaids dresses, and planning our receptions in Utah and Hawaii were pretty much all I thought about outside of school. Noa grew up on the island of Oahu and we had decided that we were going to get married and sealed (something we do in our religion) in the Laie Hawaii LDS temple. We were going to have our reception on Oahu then we would spend our honeymoon on the island of Kauai.
Noa and I were about a week away from our spring break, so just about two months away from our original wedding date when news came that school would be going all on line to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Then a few days later the news came that some adaptations were being made to how many people you could have in one place. Then there were changes to what could be done in LDS temples. I was supposed to go through the temple in Cedar City three days later... and I did, but I had to do it with only one half of my parents with me because my dad had a small cough. I cried a few big tears and moved forward.
We kept planning our wedding as if things were just normal. On March 25 we found out that all LDS temples would be closing until further notice and Hawaii was pretty much closing its border due to COVID-19. I broke down several times, feeling like the world was gaining up against me and my wedding. I remembered when my sister had planned her wedding, she cried over a lady messing up her dress alterations. I couldn't help but wish that was my smallest problem.
I was really bitter. Several people tried to offer consoling words, most of them along the lines of "at least you'll have a good story to tell your kids/grand-kids one day." This always made me mad because this was the opposite of a good story. My mom and fiance kept telling me that everything would work out, and I tried to believe them. Noa and I started to lean towards having a regular, civil wedding with just our families so we could start our lives together regardless of all of the craziness around us.
Noa and I ultimately decided to move the wedding date up to about mid April. There was no sense in waiting, we could only have one rent, and most importantly we loved each other more than anything... So we started planning another ceremony. We decided on a cute little place on a golf course, we ordered the tuxes, and found ways to order flowers for the ceremony with very short notice.
We are going to be married in eight days!! I am so excited! I shared some advice I received in my last blog but I am going to share it again. A marriage isn't about the one day you wear a white dress and walk down the isle, its about building a life with the person you love the most. Its about finding a way through the good times, and the bad together. This is what I have learned through our wedding planning process. Picking the color, picking the flowers, picking the dress... its all well and good, but in the end its about the person you pick.
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