California is currently reeling from an ongoing wildfire.  One couple, however, wanted to get married in the beautiful winelands, and didn’t want to cancel it. One of their wedding photos went viral when they posed wearing protective masks.

This past weekend, Katie and Curtis Ferland, from Chicago, Illinois, said their I do’s at the Chateau St Jean Winery in Sonoma County, California. The Kincade Fire has affected over 31 hectares and is only 45% contained as it continues its destructive path across the state, according to ABC7news.

At first, the couple was unsure about whether the wedding could go ahead as planned. However, after numerous setbacks -including having to change location- they decided to go ahead.

All the guests received masks they could wear to keep from inhaling smoke in the air, and the photographer, Karna Roa, suggested the couple incorporate it in the photos. The photo went viral since.

“I was thinking of ‘American Gothic,’ the 1930s painting that was the regular, normal of American life at the time,” Roa told ABC7 of the inspiration behind the photo. “And all of a sudden, in a very strange way, this has become our new normal of the wine country.”

“The joy won out, it was a happy wedding … But all of us were caught in that dichotomy of joy and sorrow. As a photographer, it’s easy for me to get lost in the moment and feel the joy of the couple.”

The morning after the wedding, the couple and their guests were forced to evacuate to San Francisco.

Roa hopes the image will help bring light to the escalating wildfire tragedy.

“It’s helping to bring light to the crisis and destruction going on here,” she told The Guardian US. “There are people who are still having major life events, and it’s happening right in the middle of a firestorm.”

Picture: Facebook / Karna Roa