Budget. Guest list. Music. Food. These are the things that stressed wedding planners out during normal times. A pandemic. No more than ten guests. A high-risk father of the bride who needs to be kept in isolation. These are the wedding concerns in the age of the coronavirus. 

With venues being locked down and officials urging that people avoid large public gatherings amid the coronavirus outbreak, Liz Tran and Dominic Tullio of Gloucester County, New Jersey, knew that plans for their March 19th wedding would be altered drastically, if it would even happen at all. 

“It got to the point on Monday, it went down to ten people for the gathering,” Tullio said. “So it went from day by day planning to hour by hour planning.” 

What complicated plans even further was the fact that Tran’s father, May Tran, is elderly and has a respiratory illness, making him especially vulnerable to COVID-19. He’s being cared for at the Cedar Grove Respiratory and Nursing Center, which doesn’t allow visitors. 

Still, Tran wanted her father to be as involved in the wedding as safely possible. So she and Tullio invited a small crowd of under 10 people and read their vows right outside her father’s window Thursday afternoon.

“He’s been stable for the past three months but every other month he went to the hospital every other week,” Tran said while in tears. “Ever since we told him we were doing a wedding, he hasn’t had any issues. He’s been very stable.” 

It was a beautiful moment during a very uncertain time. 

“I think it’s going to define our entire marriage,” Tullio said. 

The couple’s reception and honeymoon will both have to be rescheduled. But they were still able to pull off the wedding of their dreams even if it was far different than what they could have possibly imagined.