Here’s How We Had A Tiny Wedding During COVID

Jake and I got engaged in 2018 and we were so excited for our wedding! We planned our wedding to be on May 9, 2020. The invitations had gone out and replies were received in early March. We had the rentals, the food, the cake, linens for the tables, most of the crafts done, hotels rented out before the wedding, our honeymoon to Paris and London was all paid for… pretty much all I had left to do was attend my bridal shower and finish the bouquets and do the seating chart. And then… COVID-19 hit. At work we were sent to work remotely from home on March 17. We figured it would just be a couple of weeks and then we’d be back in the office. Oh how wrong we were.

I remember at the end of March when the CDC recommended no gatherings of over 50 people. That was when our wedding was done and over with. All of the work we put into planning our beautiful day for over a year and a half was gone. I was extremely depressed and sad about it for about a month and didn’t want to even THINK about weddings. We had to tell all of our friends and family what was going on. We didn’t know if we could postpone. We tried to find a date in the fall but the dates weren’t working out and I finally just had to stop for awhile. It was a hard time for us, too, since Jake and I didn’t live together. We had “dates” in my parents’ garage standing 6 feet apart and I just felt dejected and miserable. We got to a point where we gave up on social distancing because I needed a hug so badly.

Our original wedding date came and went but I had an inkling. What if we just got married anyway? I didn’t want to wait another year and that’s pretty much how we decided to just go with it and have a tiny wedding.

The updated invitation that I created (you can see the original faded in the background, followed by the “Postponed”, followed by this updated version).

We live streamed the event so our friends and family could still share the day with us since there was no other way for them to be there. We threw out all of our original plans and quickly made plans for a tiny wedding with about 2 weeks notice. Our wedding officiant and wedding planner really came through to help us with this new plan, assisting us out with so many aspects of the wedding and we’re forever grateful to them for their help. Here’s a recap of our tiny wedding!

Morning Of The Tiny Wedding

The day of our wedding, Alyssa came over to help me make flower bouquets from flowers I bought at Trader Joe’s. 

Check out all those clippings! 

So pretty. Originally I was not going to have any flowers except for paper flowers but in the end, decided two bouquets would be worth it. Alyssa helped me do my nails and then Stacey came over later to do my hair. I was on my own for makeup! I practiced a few times in advance and my original makeup artist helped me over a Zoom call so I could get the hang of it.

Getting To The Wedding

Jake got to the venue early to help set up. 

I was almost to the 125 when I suddenly hit traffic… a lot of traffic.

Alyssa took this screenshot and sent it to me later. She called me to tell me what was going on which was a good thing since I was in a panic.

The freeway had been shut down from the protests in La Mesa as I was driving to my wedding. Above is the photo I took from the 8. All traffic was being directed off the freeway to Spring Street.

And this is the photo Alyssa took, who was on the 125. 

Me, 3 of my bridesmaids, and my parents were all stuck in the freeway shut down traffic so we were all over an hour late to the venue. As soon as we arrived we did the rehearsal and my bridesmaids and I went off to the Brides Room to get ready. Luckily I did not look at my phone nor have a watch on so I couldn’t stress about the time. Brides are always fashionably late, right?

Getting Ready

Almost all of the photos below are by Jessica Beamon Photo. She was a great last minute photographer for us!

Just a few “getting ready” shots in the Brides Room at the chapel (which our officiant graciously let us use). 

I was worried those damn buttons wouldn’t button… but thankfully they did.

Trying to put some curls into my hair that refuses to curl. 

The bouquets for the bridesmaids and myself were all made by me (with some help from Alyssa)! They are a combination of paper roses made from old Harry Potter books I got from the thrift store along with sola wood flowers that I bought online. 

The best part is I get to keep this bouquet forever! 

 

Can you see the sparkles in my dress?!?! That was my favorite part about my wedding dress. I tried on 5 dresses before selecting this one. I actually saw it on the rack on my second visit to David’s Bridal and I already knew that it would be my dress. 

The Tiny Wedding

Here’s the details from our tiny wedding!

The hand sanitizer is a dead giveaway that this is a COVID wedding. Ha.

Jake and his sister, Amy (the Best Woman), walking to the altar. The bridesmaids with the groomsmen followed after this. 

My mom walking down the aisle with our “flower girl”, little Miss Maya.

Walking down the aisle with my dad!

Aww! First look!

Saying our vows.

We paused for a moment of silence for family and friends we have lost. 

Then we did a Whiskey Unity during our ceremony as well.  

I bought a small oak barrel so we could pour some moonshine into it to make our own whiskey. The date on the barrell has our original wedding date on it, ha. We used Cutwaters Devil’s Share Moonshine for the pouring.

We poured two glasses and inserted the funnel so we could pour the moonshine together to make our whiskey. There are lots of ways to do this but we just used one kind and we actually drank the whiskey about 6 weeks later (it was very strong).

Just pronounced Husband and Wife!

Hooray, married! 

The First Dance

We bought a 100 toy lightsabers so we could walk under a lightsaber arch for our grand exit for our original wedding… so for the tiny wedding, we had our family and friends hoist the lightsabers up as we walked back into the gazebo for our first dance. 

We danced to “I Wanna Grow Old With You” by Adam Sandler.

But! Then we had a lightsaber battle!

We mixed in the dialogue from the sword fighting scene between Inigo and Westley from The Prince Bride. You can watch it below!

Tiny Wedding Reception and Cake Cutting

We didn’t have a dinner, just some veggie snacks plus chips with salsa. We were going to have a full taco bar reception and now we hope to do that for a future anniversary party. Our wedding planner did a great job setting everything up!

Various dips, gucamole, hot carrots, tomatoes, and carrots.

Mexican Cokes were one of Jake’s “must haves”.

The cake and favor table! I really loved the lightsaber touch.

Amy had these adorable Star Wars cookies made for us!

And inside these little bags (which I thrifted for $2) are caramels from Sugar Mamma Caramels.

♥

Before the cake cutting, our friends did some toasts.

I thrifted these champagne glasses. I got heart chalkboard stickers to put on the outside. The stickers washed off so we still have them.

And we did that intertwined drinking thing (sparkling cider) and Jake had to stoop way way down to be on the same level as me. Ha! 

Our very simple wedding cake done by my friend Faye of Faye’s Desserts. The cake toppers are Leia and Han Amiibo figures with some of the balsa wood paper flowers that are in my bouquet. 

Somehow I got frosting on my nose…

Jake trying the frosting, which you can clearly see that he loved. PS – I made that boutonniere that he’s wearing which is a Lego R2D2 with a little spray of fake flowers. His bow tie was bought off of Etsy.

His turn.

The cake was a white cake with berry puree and a chantilly cream frosting which was so nice and light! Faye did such a great job with this cake!

Feeding time.

Lightsabers lit up (after the cake cutting).

My beautiful bridesmaids after the cake cutting!

Yay We Got Married

Here are some other photos from the tiny wedding day! A selfie shot taken by Alyssa.

And a photo from the silly selfie by our photographer. I love both viewpoints.

I’ll always treasure this photo. Another reason I’m glad we decided to go ahead with our tiny wedding was that Maya was able to be apart of the ceremony. She passed away 2 weeks after our wedding.

I made this to match the sign for our “Achievement Unlocked – Got Engaged” sign from our engagement photos.

Our Wedding Party!

Just looking all cute and married and stuff!

♥♥♥

Ring shot!

With my family!

With Jake’s family!

After our wedding we went to the Bahia for our “mini moon”. I was hungry and requested McDonalds. This is us going through the drive thru in our wedding clothes.

Happy meal for a happy bride!

Venue: Faith Chapel
Officiant & Videographer: Josiah Elias
Photographer: Jessica Beamon Photo
Wedding Planner: The DIY Bride SD
Brides Dress: David’s Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: Azazie
Wedding Shoes: Clarks Cammy Wedge Pearl Sandal
Wedding Cake: Faye’s Desserts
Necklace: Parravi Jewelry
Brides Ring: Zales
Grooms Ring: Modern Gents
Livestream: Event Live