Maria had to cancel her dream wedding due to COVID-19 — instead, she got married at home

Maria and Brandon Seveska of Lake Zurich were supposed to get married on April 4, 2020 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Skokie. Unfortunately, the couple had to cancel their wedding due to COVID-19. Instead of cancelling their wedding altogether, Maria  and Brandon decided to get married at home with their friends and family.

Describe the weeks leading up to your wedding. 

I’m a teacher, and we were notified at school there was a possibility of our school closing for a week or two due to COVID-19. I didn’t think much of it. On March 13, the teachers were told we were going to do E-learning. I just thought school would be closed for a couple weeks. I didn’t think it was a big deal at first!

Were you finished wedding planning?

YES! I was so OCD about wedding planning. I was done planning the wedding in July of 2019.

When did you become really worried about having to cancel your wedding?

I called The DoubleTree in Skokie, and asked them the protocol for this unique situation a few weeks before the wedding. They told us that we probably couldn’t have a group larger than 50. We went through our list and cut it down to 50 people. The following week, it couldn’t be more than 10 people. Then, we found out that everyone in Illinois had to shelter in place.

How did you feel?

I’m not going to lie, I was an emotional wreck. I put so much planning into our wedding. But, we decided to go with the flow. Brandon called our judge and asked if he could marry us on April 4 at our house.

How did you start planning for an at-home wedding?

I went to Wal-Mart and purchased wedding attire! I bought a runner for our “aisle” and table cloths on Amazon. I dyed my own hair and bought a pair of press on nails! We cleared all of our furniture out of our family room. I bought a three-tier Pepperidge Farm coconut cake from Target and my mom made the flowers. We cleaned our house top to bottom and we catered dinner from a local restaurant.

Who was at your wedding?

It was our parents, my sister, Brandon’s brother and sister and brother-in-law.

Who organized the wedding parade outside of your home?

One of my former students’ parents organized the parade. She put an email out to notify everyone. It was very sweet.

Tell me about the wedding.

I worked out in the morning and we made sure that Brandon stayed in the basement and I stayed upstairs so we didn’t see each other. Our family came over around noon. Brandon’s mom took all of the photos. The judge came to our house and we got married!

Why didn’t you want to reschedule your wedding?

I knew right away that I was going to marry Brandon. After our second date, Brandon said he started saving up for a wedding. We just knew that we really wanted to get married. All the other stuff didn’t matter.

Do you think you’ll have a reception in the upcoming months?

The only date that was available at the DoubleTree was Aug. 29. So, we’re hoping to have a big reception on that day. If people are still social distancing then, we will have a big one year anniversary party.

What does the future hold for you and Brandon?

We definitely want kids! Our goal is just to be happy. This whole situation has made us appreciate the times we have together.