Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has launched an online wedding service to restrict social interaction and movement.

The UAE currently has 5 365 confirmed coronavirus cases and 33 deaths. As a result, they’ve put in place a number of strict measures to curb the spread of the virus.

The Justice Ministry has created a page on their website to allow citizens and residents that still intend to wed to apply to get married online. Couples must first submit the relevant paperwork and once approved, their big day will be conducted via a video link with a cleric.

The cleric will confirm identities of the bridal couple and their witnesses. The bridal couple will then digitally sign the marriage certificate before it is sent to a specialised court for validation. The couple will receive confirmation of their marriage certificate via text message.

Feature image: Unsplash

Like many others, Alex Buckwell, 26, and David Collie, 36, were forced to cancel their wedding on account of the coronavirus pandemic. Luckily for them, they recently moved into the friendliest of neighbourhoods and were treated to a surprise wedding by the other residents.

The couple from Eastbourne, East Sussex, postponed their ceremony which was supposed take place in a Scottish priory. Of course, they were heart broken by this. Instead of their big wedding, they planned to eat fancy steaks in their new garden on March 23, since they had just moved in.

That evening, they heard the sound of bagpipes and a knock on their door. To their surprise they found that their new neighbours put together an impromptu wedding with champagne, bagpipes, flowers, and a bubble machine.

“It was the most touching surprise,” said Alex, who works in HR for the NHS in Eastbourne, to the Daily Mail.  “To know that this was all organised by strangers made it even more incredible. I couldn’t stop crying.”

“We’d moved into the house on the last day possible before house moves were banned and then we were in lockdown so we hadn’t met any of the neighbours.”

She said she only briefly mentioned what would have been her wedding day because the woman who lives across the road had asked her if they could swap parking spaces.

The couple danced to ABBA’s Dancing Queen as the neighbours applauded their first dance in the middle of the road.

Congrats to the happy couple!

Images: Unsplash

With quarantine in effect throughout the globe, people are having to find creative ways to keep busy. This UK-based wedding photographer decided to keep his skills sharp. However, since he can’t shoot real weddings, he staged and shot a Lego wedding.

Wedding photographer Chris Wallace of Carpe Diem Photography shared a series of images from a wedding he shot for Lego couple Florence and Fred.

“Wow what an incredible day! Florence & Fred were extremely lucky to have their wedding during lock-down, the suppliers pulled out all the stops to make this magical day happen,” wrote Wallace on his website.

“They first met in a warehouse, it was a meeting like no other. On the Amazon conveyor belt their eyes made contact and they fell in love, it was from that moment they knew they would be together forever. ”

Their outdoor wedding  featured esteemed guests such as Chewbacca, Hans Solo and 1980 Lego spaceman among others.

There was not a dry eye in the crowd when Florence walked down the aisle, escorted by her father Harry Potter.

The reception was a great time, even though the guests had to maintain social distancing. Take a look at their special day below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-z9R_Qh8Wy/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

All images captured by the talented Chris Wallace of Carpe Diem Photography

With the coronavirus pandemic essentially taking over the world, couples are having for rethink their wedding celebrations. Those with elderly relatives have to be extra careful, as they are some of the most at-risk in the population.

Danielle Beaumier, a bride from Boardman, Ohio, refused to have her wedding without her beloved grandma. However, she wanted to ensure her safety too. In order to ensure that her grandmother was a part of her special day, Beaumier brought the wedding to her grandmother’s window.

Her grandma lives in an assisted living facility. WKFR reports that she was able to attend the bridal shower in March. However, since then social distancing regulations have tightened and the coronavirus situation has worsened. Now, nursing homes have gone into lockdown in order to protect their residents.

With just the couple, their parents, Beaumier’s grandmother, and the officiant in attendance, they held a small ceremony on the lawn outside the nursing home.

“My important thing was having my grandmother there. So, as long as that happened I was happy with the outcome,” says Beaumeir to WKFR.

The couple intends to hold their wedding celebration in August.

Congrats to the happy couple!

Image: Screenshot from video

As the coronavirus pandemic worsens all over the world, healthcare workers are spending more and more of their time at hospitals. On what was meant to be their wedding day, these two doctors turned their workplace into an impromptu wedding venue.

Dr. Shelun Tsai, an OBGYN resident at Duke University Hospital, and Dr. Michael Sun, a resident in Duke Psychiatry’s program, were scheduled to tie the knot on Saturday, April 11 in North Carolina.

The couple have been engaged since 2016 but had to postpone their wedding amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, their colleagues at Duke University Hospital made sure that what would have been their wedding day was still a special moment.

“They knew I’d postponed my wedding but people didn’t realize it was that day until I was there [at work] and I said it was supposed to be April 11,” Tsai told Good Morning America. “It started out small, that they wanted to make me a wedding dress, then it was a veil, then flowers and then it became everyone chipping in and jumping onboard.”

“They literally started at 8 a.m. and in between patient care they’d get bits of stuff done and then had the ceremony at 3 p.m.”

Their coworkers set up a room where Sun and Tsai could have a special ‘first look’ moment. Tsai then walked down the aisle in a wedding gown her colleagues had fashioned out of paper.

A nurse ‘officiated’ the 15-minute ceremony, which was broadcast live on Zoom to the couple’s family and friends.

2 @dukesom residents had a @zoom_us wedding at @DukeHospital Birthing Center today! The ceremony commemorated what would have been their big day in NYC. Fam & friends virtually watched @dukeobgyn resident Shelun Tsai exchange vows w/ @DukePsychiatry resident Michael Sun ? ? ? pic.twitter.com/p8RKwBXBWA

— Duke OB/GYN (@dukeobgyn) April 11, 2020

When your co-resident’s wedding has been thrown off by COVID-19, you don your best PPE for a hospital ceremony @dukeobgyn pic.twitter.com/t6jAvhSonZ

— Luke Gatta, MD (@gattago) April 11, 2020

Following the ceremony, Tsai and Sun rode off in style on a hospital transportation cart decorated with “Just Married” signs as their getaway car.

“It was absolutely amazing,” Tsai said of the ceremony. “Every day I feel like we take care of our patients and we’re always so thoughtful and love what we do and to see that [my colleagues] also care so much about us and the things that mean so much to us, it was really touching.”

“They’re really my work family and we really try to take care of each other,” she said.

With the coronavirus outbreak, many are stuck at home with little to do. In an effort to entertain themselves while still maintaining social distancing, these fun neighbours posed for a creative wedding shoot.

Five neighbours in Georgetown, Texas donned their old wedding dresses to partake in a photoshoot they’ve dubbed ‘Wedding dress Wednesday’.

Behind the lens was professional photographer Elyssa Seibel, who came up with the idea along with the ‘brides’, Jamie Egloff, Bryce Ellerbroek, Shannon Thomas, Nina Wagner and Jaime Sladek.

“Nina decided that a fancy wine night was exactly what she needed and so she proceeded to put on her wedding dress and take a picture of it—and let me tell you, she had a blast,” Seibel explained to Good Morning America. “After a few glasses of wine, she decided to call it ‘Wedding Dress Wednesday’ and that’s when my photographer brain snapped on. I asked in our group chat how many of the women could come outside in their wedding dresses to take photos, and no one hesitated.”

The photoshoot was a fun way for the women, who are all good friends, to get together in a safe way and take their minds off the current crisis.

“There is a lot of disappointing news right now… so just being able to get out on the street and see each other as we’ve never seen each other before was a really good feeling. It was so ridiculous but it brought a lot of joy,” said Jaime Sladek.

“I think we take for granted, the little bit of human interaction we get each day,” Seibel added. “Even just walking down the street and saying hi to a neighbor. This definitely puts a lot of things into perspective, to be able to not only give ourselves a laugh and a little break from the stress of this crisis. I think the goal is to find as much happiness as possible in all this craziness. We’re all in this together and all helping each other find ways to cope.”

Feature image: A Joy Story Photography – https://www.ajoystoryphotography.com/