Elderly Couple Holds Wedding Over Zoom So Friends and Family Can 'Attend'
We are living during a very unique time in history where quarantining or isolating ourselves physically doesn’t mean we have to be out of touch with people.
While video chats were popular before the coronavirus struck, they’re incredibly popular now.
Even though friends and family are separated by miles, they can still talk, watch movies and even play games together using modern-day chat options.
And now, people have even gotten married in the presence of (online) witnesses.
The idea was first hatched when the family of 90-year-old Alvin Lee decided to surprise him with a Zoom conference call for his birthday. It was a great way to bring the family together without the hassle of travel or the risk of infection.
Lee’s granddaughter, Jennifer Whitaker, said the call started giving Lee and his 85-year-old fiancée, Dorothy Driskell, a way to recover their wedding plans.
“It sparked their idea to then hold a Zoom wedding,” Whitaker told CBS.
Lee and Driskill met at a conference and have known each other for a year, but they’ve had a lot of the same life experiences. Both of them had experienced the loss of their spouses, they both had grandchildren and they were both originally from Ohio.
“They became fast friends and began driving back and forth between their cities to see each other,” Whitaker added.
The two were engaged in January, and though they’d planned a springtime wedding, the coronavirus changed everyone’s plans. No longer able to hold the celebration they’d planned, the couple wasn’t sure what to do.
“They planned on having a big wedding this spring, but had to cancel because of the coronavirus,” Whitaker said.
But through Zoom, the couple could involve their family and friends and still get married, so they found a pastor willing to marry them in this new method and sent out the invites, such as they were.
“The wedding took place at Alvin’s home on Friday,” Whitaker explained. “Twenty family members and friends joined the Zoom call. It was the pastor’s first Zoom wedding!”
The pastor led them through reciting their vows, and the happy couple posed in front of an extensive bookshelf. Driskell wore a purple dress, and Lee donned a suit and tie.
Despite the unknowns of the future, this couple will now be able to face it together as husband and wife, thanks to technology.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
