From Wedding Plan A to Z
A Santa Barbara Bride and Groom’s Pandemic Pivot Saves the Date
On a cold December evening in 2018, my fiancé and I sipped Old Fashioneds in a cozy Sonoma County bar, riding high from an emotional afternoon. Hours earlier, while Jerry and I were touring Hanzell Vineyards, admiring the oldest pinot noir vines in California, he suddenly got down on one knee and asked me to spend my life with him. I was shocked: not that he asked me to marry him — we had been together for years — but that I didn’t see it coming! All I could say was, “Of course!”
And that began our great adventure — an adventure, it turned out, that was much more dramatic than either of us could have predicted. After all, a pandemic was something that only existed in my sci-fi novels. And we were fortunate to have a few blissful months of old-fashioned wedding planning before the harsh realities of what a pandemic really meant hit home.
While I would never wish an experience like we went through on any engaged couple, it did prove to me what I already knew to be true — that Jerry and I are right for each other. Life is messy, but having the right person by your side is everything. We faced these challenges together, hand in hand, as a team, and that’s what marriage is all about, right?
