Getting married is considered a major milestone in life, and planning for one can cause enough stress, but having one during a pandemic is another issue. 

Alexis Stevens recently married her husband Chad this past weekend at Daubendiek Park in Jefferson. However, this wasn’t a traditional wedding ceremony. Because of COVID-19, there were a limited number of people who attended in-person, while also sharing the event electronically via Zoom. Alexis tells Raccoon Valley Radio why she wanted to show her wedding on Zoom.

“So my sisters weren’t able to attend, one lives overseas so she couldn’t come back, and then the other one lives out of state, and then some of Chad’s family wasn’t able to attend either. So we thought, ‘Well, we do everything else on Zoom now, so why don’t we just do the wedding on Zoom? So that they are all able to see it and be there. And we were able to see them interacting on the screen as well.”

Alexis says they took COVID-19 precautions at the wedding by having their over 20 guests socially distant, and with an outdoor wedding, weather can be a factor, but Alexis notes the wind died down right as the wedding started, which was a bit of good luck. In typical wedding fashion, Alexis points out there were technology issues they had to figure out as well. 

“My mom just brought her computer, and we brought a stool and set the computer on there. We kind of had to play around with that for a little bit because we needed to figure out where’s the best place to put the computer. If you’re familiar with Zoom, the virtual backgrounds on there is something you can choose. We had my mom’s Zoom account, and she couldn’t get the virtual background off (when the wedding started). So for a little while, you weren’t able to see the beautiful scenery down at Daubendiek Park, all you could see was ‘University of Minnesota,’ which was on her background. But we managed to get that off, so you could see everything.”

Alexis jokes that having her wedding electronically wasn’t something she planned for, but is now a unique memory. She has also attended a funeral and a baby shower electronically this year, which she says is something she will remember.