Coronavirus Delays Get Couples More Eager To Marry At The Shore

GALLOWAY, NJ — Stephanie Sims and Jeff Passman had their perfect wedding planned out, until less than two weeks ago. The couple planned to wed Saturday at Seaview, a Dolce Hotel, in Galloway. But the novel coronavirus made the occasion unfeasible.

On March 11 — 17 days before their wedding — they asked their planner how their wedding could still work with about 150 people expected. Then the Center for Disease Control imposed new limits on social gatherings, and 25 attendees canceled in one day.

The Atlantic Highlands couple decided March 16 to postpone their wedding to Dec. 12.

Sims and Passman are among countless soon-to-be newlyweds around the nation who had to change plans because of the coronavirus. The virus has spread in the region as wedding season approaches — especially since the warmer months on the Jersey Shore set a perfect atmosphere for marriage.

But they're not discouraged. They're one of many couples who found a silver lining in this chaotic time. Now they have plenty of time to enjoy the engagement and gather people to celebrate. And when this pandemic ends, many couple who had to postpone will be even more eager to marry.

"We just wanted to kind of legally get married (in March)," Sims said. "I know a lot of girls are doing it, and I’m sort of jealous of them. But overall, we made the right decision to get married in December."

Rolling with the Changes

Weddings were scheduled all through spring and summer with Enchanted Celebrations, a West Creek-based company that specializes in wedding productions.

The company serves several states from New York to Maryland. As the coronavirus spread in the mid-Atlantic, Executive Director Alex Karas needed to help about 70 couples postpone their plans. Some had their weddings scheduled for that week.

But Karas has been pleasantly surprised. Customers still feel eager to book weddings in 2021 and 2022 — or December, in the case of Sims and Passman.

"We haven’t seen a decrease in future bookings," Karas said. "Normally in a recession situation, we’re a luxury item. You’d see people pull back or even have smaller events."

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Sims and Passman got engaged in November 2018. They always planned to elope and then host a more public ceremony, and they were finally going to get it done this month.

But family from out of town wouldn't have been able to travel, and the documentation fell through.

"We had applied for our marriage license on March 6th, but there was some unease in the courts for a while," Sims said. "So our pickup for the certificate was delayed, and earlier this week, we were notified that they didn’t even have the certificate available yet."

When it became inevitable that their March ceremony wouldn't occur either, Enchanted Celebrations contacted them. Fortunately for Sims and Passman, it only took a day to reschedule everything to Dec. 12, with no added cost.

The only difference? Their wedding painter isn't available that day, but she'll visit this summer to create a portrait of Sims, Passman and their dog.

Love Marches On

Postponement isn't always easy, especially with the uncertainty of the virus. The CDC guided the public in mid-March to cancel gatherings of 50 people for the next eight weeks in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Governor Phil Murphy has also banned the public from leaving their homes for "non-essential" reasons — a Lakewood man was cited Thursday for hosting a wedding of about 40 people.

Some couples want to wait things out and delay their wedding to September or October. But the issue is that staff such as DJs, photographers and videographers already have previous contracts for those dates.

From April through some of fall, Karas says many of his clients plan beach weddings. Although rescheduling a wedding for that setting becomes difficult, many couples don't make it their top priority. They just want more than anything to get married.

"I don’t want to say they’re giving up on the beach dream," Karas said. "But they’re just like, ‘What’s an open date? I want to get it on the calendar.’"

Sims and Passman chose to celebrate in the winter, when fewer people hold ceremonies. The decision created many positives for the couple.

Their last few months felt hectic because of holidays, family obligations and final planning for what they thought would be their wedding date. But now they get to enjoy their engagement, Sims says.

Sims and Passman also extended their honeymoon about 10 days, since they'll take it during the winter holidays and won't have to use as much paid time off. The couple will travel to the Galápagos Islands, the Ecuador mainlaid and then to Peru and Machu Picchu.

"This will give us a chance to step back, to remember what matters, what’s important," Sims said. "And we can re-invite people that weren’t able to make it in the beginning and enjoy it with them."