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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at VCU chapter.

On Feb. 7, 2020, I got engaged to my very best friend! Little did we know that the very next month, our wedding plans would be turned upside down. We knew that planning a wedding while still in college would be difficult, but we never expected a pandemic to strike and take the difficulty to the next level!

I have always looked forward to planning my wedding, like most of us. I was excited to choose the colors, the flowers, the venue and everything else that goes along with it. I was given a wedding planner the night of our engagement, and my ideas started rolling. We chose a date, June 28, 2020, which was also our fourth anniversary. We even sent out adorable save the date cards with an engagement photo on them. Then COVID-19 hit.

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Like most people, we thought COVID-19 would pass quickly and not affect our wedding at all. We continued forward with our June date and booked a venue for it. My now husband’s grandmother graciously decided to make our cake, and we settled on a look for it. Everything was falling into place when suddenly, Virginia was in lockdown. Not only that, but we were also sent home from school. We were forced into many transitions at once, all while trying to keep up with school and trying to plan the perfect wedding. As the state continued to stay in lockdown and the COVID-19 cases continued to rise, we were forced to make the difficult decision to postpone our wedding. Instead of being discouraged, though, we looked on the bright side. This gave us more time to plan. Four months was a pretty difficult timeline, and it would give time for the weather to break and bring in cooler temperatures. So, over the next few days, we thought about various dates and spoke with the venue owner until we found our second date, Sep. 26, 2020.

As time passed and masks became required, I consulted other brides on the internet to see what their plans were. Most 2020 brides had postponed their weddings until 2021, but I couldn’t imagine waiting a year or more to marry my best friend. So, we keep moving forward, sending out “Yikes, we’re changing the date!” cards and coming up with ways to have a wedding while keeping people safe. We make tweaks and changes to our plans to include social distancing and incorporate mask-wearing. We also let people know that it was okay if they were not comfortable attending, that we totally understood! So, just last week, my fiance and I became husband and wife at the perfect wedding! 

Though the journey to planning our wedding was difficult, it was well worth all of the stress. The weather was perfect and the decor was beautiful. It was everything that I dreamed it would be. Despite COVID-19 and the stress of virtual school, we were able to pull off the perfect wedding and I couldn’t be more blessed!

Kristen is a senior with a major in Elementary School Education. She loves to read, camp, and hang out with her two dogs and awesome husband.
Mary McLean (née Moody) is an avid writer and is the former Editor in Chief of Her Campus at VCU. She wrote diligently for Her Campus at VCU for two years and was the Editor in Chief for three years. You can find her work here! She double majored in Political Science and History at Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated in 2022. She loves her son, Peter, and her cat Sully. You can find her looking at memes all night and chugging Monster in the morning with her husband!