5 Tampa Bay couples talk about getting married during the pandemic

Weddings take a lot of planning. There are venues to secure, flowers and cakes to be ordered, photographers and DJs to book. Even with simple weddings, there are guests to invite, gatherings to look forward to, memories to be made.

This year, the threat of COVID-19 forced many couples to alter their plans. Some held virtual ceremonies. Some went with very small gatherings.

Wedding and event planner Sarah Fairburne, who owns One Fine Day Wedding and Events in Tampa, said she hasn’t seen any of her clients doing Zoom weddings. But she has seen many couples rescheduling, while others are eloping or having smaller weddings because they didn’t want to wait any longer.

She said one client had a COVID station at their reduced-sized wedding, with monogrammed face masks and hand sanitizer.

Michael Novilla, owner of event venue Nova 535 in St. Petersburg, said lots of weddings at the venue had been rescheduled. They have a bridal shower scheduled for June. He said they have the space to safely accommodate 150 people, but the other logistics of weddings, such as food and dancing, would have to change going forward.

We talked to five Tampa Bay couples about getting married during the coronavirus pandemic.

Dan Lee and Cassie Peden

Dan Lee and Cassie Peden originally planned to get married on May 9 at the Treasure Bay Resort and Marina, where Lee works.

When stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic went into effect in March, the couple started moving dates around and even considered moving the ceremony to Michigan.

But after Peden had a cancer scare, they rushed to get married on a dock just south of John’s Pass in Treasure Island on March 26.

They’d been looking forward to spending time with his family from Michigan, her Haitian family from Tennessee and a group of friends from Charlotte, N.C., where the couple met.

They decided they could still share their special day with family by streaming the ceremony on Facebook Live. They found an officiant online the day before and were married in a ceremony above the glistening, turquoise water.

The only in-person guest was Lee’s best friend, who also DJed. But 450 of their friends and family got to witness the ceremony by tuning in to the livestream. Messages full of hearts and well wishes flooded the feed.

A photographer passing by on a boat saw the ceremony and captured an image of it.

Lee announced the wedding on Facebook the day before and teased videos out before they went live.

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“It was great because even people who weren’t invited to the wedding got to see us get married,” he said.

Peden’s cancer scare was just that — a scare, thankfully. The couple plan to have a reception in Michigan when the time is right.

Ariel Panjwani and Ernie Baulieu

Ariel Panjwani and Ernie Baulieu were planning an Old Florida-themed wedding at Sacred Lands in St. Petersburg for April 4. The couple, who love embarking on adventures in Florida’s state parks, had planned centerpieces made of maps from the parks. Baulieu had proposed to Panjwani at Silver Springs, with a ring that had a gator on it.

They were also expecting people from out of town: Baulieu had family coming from Connecticut and Panjwani had her Pakistani family coming in from Texas. They’d even planned a Pakistani-themed night on the eve of the wedding.

She was disappointed they couldn’t have the wedding they were planning. She also wanted the family together.

“I feel let down about the wedding, but I also feel guilty for feeling that way because there’s so much worse stuff happening,” she said.

They decided to keep their wedding date, in part because of the pandemic.

So on April 4, they had an intimate ceremony in their St. Petersburg front yard under three live oak trees, with a small gathering of less than 10 people. To connect with family who couldn’t be there, they streamed the ceremony to a virtual audience of 15 to 20 on Zoom. Other friends watched from their cars and listened in on Zoom. Baulieu’s mother officiated the ceremony.

Panjwani opted to save her wedding dress for the party they will have down the road and wore a flowing white dress with flowers on it.

There were technical difficulties. Panjwani said the first 20 or 30 minutes were spent setting up the Zoom call. But then toasts were made, the cake was cut and guests were invited to a virtual after-party. Some of the Zoom guests wore party hats.

“It was a great day,” she said. “I felt good that we made the decision to still get married. That part is done. That’s what matters.”

Orli Sharone and John Barker

Orli Sharone and John Barker were supposed to get married on June 7 at the St. Petersburg Women’s Club. They decided to postpone their wedding until October. They were able to reschedule most of their vendors, including the venue.

“We don’t know if October is going to be any better,” Sharone said. “That’s the bummer in all this, we just don’t know.”

Barker said they were excited to get married pretty quickly after their engagement in November. Sharone said she’s been waiting for this moment her whole life. It’s been hard to come up on the original date and have to keep waiting.

If October comes and they still can’t have a big wedding with friends and family, they’ll opt for a smaller gathering.

“We wouldn’t want to delay it any further,” Barker said.

Natasha DeJesus and Heather Kelly

Natasha DeJesus and Heather Kelly, who live in Clearwater, are moving forward with their plans for a November destination wedding in Healdsburg, Calif. The three-day event is based on the music festivals where the couple fell in love and got engaged.

DeJesus, with the help of Kelly’s mother, planned an elaborate affair with 120 guests that includes a meet and greet on the first day and an “adventure day” on the third day. The second day is the wedding, themed To the Stars and Back, a phrase Kelly says to DeJesus when she tells her she loves her.

The couple is being optimistic because they don’t want to “manifest that it won’t happen.”

But if plans have to change somewhat, they still plan to get married, with a smaller group of friends and family, under the California Redwoods.

Marina Williams and Evan Williams

The pandemic also produced an impromptu wedding.

Marina Williams and Evan Williams, who shared the same last name before they got married, have been together for 13 years and engaged for a few. But with their busy schedules working together at St. Petersburg’s Artpool Gallery, running the shops and producing festivals and fashion shows, they had no time to plan a wedding.

When Artpool closed at the start of Florida’s stay-at-home orders, their pace suddenly slowed down. With their 13th anniversary approaching on May 25, Marina said to Evan, “We should go for it.”

They decided to fulfill their dream of getting married at the gallery.

A five-day scramble ensued. Friends who tend to the plants at Artpool began beautifying the courtyard. Evan’s mom offered to make the cake, and his aunt agreed to officiate. Evan orchestrated individually packaged meals to arrive at 6 p.m. Marina and her mother, Becky, scoured the gallery and their homes for props for the centerpieces. Marina found her wedding look from the racks at Artpool.

They were married before a small gathering of socially distanced friends and family, with their beloved schnauzer, Franklin, in tow and dressed in a tux. Both Evan’s and Marina’s parents were celebrating milestone wedding anniversaries and renewed their vows at the ceremony, too.

Marina said it was exciting “to be wed, to be joined and celebrated in a time when it can be hard to find joy.”

“It all came together beautifully,” she said. “Honestly, if we had a year to plan I wouldn’t have changed a thing. The important thing about a wedding to focus on is each other. Everything else is just fluff, and fluff is good but it’s not the glue and the love.”

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