30. Married By Midnight – Coronavirus Wedding

RootedInFaith

An interview I did on Spirit Radio Ireland: https://www.spiritradio.ie/podcast/fri-3-apr-abbie-alcorn/

What. A. Whirlwind.

Wedding update: WE’RE MARRIED!!!
So what happened was…
25th April was the plan for our legal marriage to take place. Having already postponed the full wedding celebrations, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we still wanted to get married, no matter what format that had to take. The plan was for dad to marry us and our mums to be our witnesses. We have our lovely home now in Kilkenny and I was ready to move myself and Ophelia 😻 to join Brian and Migeul 🐱.
Given the fact that I work in the hospital, I have increasingly been concerned about spreading anything to dad by living with him. 25th April was looking less and less likely for marriage, due to the potential for Ireland to go into lockdown.
So we brought the wedding date ahead to 28th March. Today.
Cut to yesterday evening (March 27th) – our wedding eve. Dad and I are rehearsing through the ceremony. I’m looking a mess. Hair thrown up. No makeup. Pyjamas already on. Excited and jittery for our wedding day to soon be here.
We get a text to check the news. It is 8.50pm. Lockdown to be enforced from midnight! No time to panic.
Immediately decisions were discussed and phonecalls were made. Brian and I have always been so certain about marrying. We have complete peace about that. Our parents are supportive of this union that they have been praying for since we were small. Everything else has been a distraction. Yes, disappointing and sad moments as things have unfolded – main wedding celebrations postponed, honeymoon to Barbados cancelled. Followed by new joy and acceptance of the changes. But throughout it all, complete peace and determination that we were to be married. God is good.
It was all systems go. Shirts ironed, buttonholes hastily made, flowers pulled from the vase, the mums and groom hastened to the church, as did the dads (a beautiful framed picture of Brian’s dad, Ivan, also made it), followed finally by the bride who was also trying to pack most of her worldly possessions in the car (Ophelia remains with dad for now!)
And amidst the chaos of the outside world, we had the most special, intimate wedding, followed by communion. By the time we all got there (my mum had over an hour to travel), we were married by 11.30pm and left the church at midnight. Just in time for lockdown!
God speaks in a still, quiet voice.
The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord , for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
1 Kings 19:11‭-‬12 NIV
Our wedding was still and quiet. Unassuming and subtle. No fanfare, no pazzaz (even though we love pazzaz!)
But I can assure you, it was DEAFENING in the heavenlies!!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Thank you to everyone for all the kindness and encouragement shared with us, as we went through the emotions of all the recent changes. There are devastating things going on in the world right now and we are aware that our wedding getting postponed is only a tiny thing in the grand scheme. For us, this has been the most significant event of our lives. So we have felt the emotions of our situation whilst also having an appreciation for the tragedies going on around us.
So there it is.
The story of how Mr. & Mrs. Alcorn got hitched!♥️

Ps. Social distancing was adhered to!

So much happened spiritually in the the lead up to these events. No doubt I will have a lot of blogs to share from this adventure. But for now, I’m off to enjoy my week long stay-cation home quarantine honeymoon!

Love Abbie x

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12 Comments

  2. Wow. What a lovely story. Congrats its finally done!

    My daughter is due to be married 8th May but is now stuck estranged from her beloved in different areas of London.
    Is your dad a vicar or pastor?
    Did you get married legally as well as in the sight of God?

    How did you do that?

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    1. Hi Clare,
      I’m sorry to hear that about your daughter – it is such a stressful time!

      We were blessed in that my dad is a Methodist minister. We had already registered the marriage for 25th April but in the Irish system there I’d a section on the form for making any changes to the original registration. The office had advised us how to complete the form to reflect any changes made.
      So we were blessed to be married both legally and in the sight of God on 27th March.
      I would advise your daughter to call her registration office to see what is possible in terms of legally marrying – there may be a way around it ☺️

      Best wishes,
      Abbie

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  3. Congratulations on your wedding Abbie and Brian.Wishing you both a long, healthy and blessed life together xx

    I enjoy reading your blog, very encouraging and helpful.

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  5. Congratulations Mr and Mrs Alcon.
    With God everthing is possible. His works are not ours. May God bind you together all the days of your life. Happy married life
    God bless you.

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  6. CONGRADULATIONS OVER AND OVER AGAIN, SO HAPPY FOR YOU BOTH AND DELIGHTED TO HEAR YOUR SPECIAL NEWS. YOU ARE SO BLESSED BY YOUR ALIMIGHTY FATHER.

    THE NEW EVENTS IN OCTOBER WILL BE JUST LOVELY XX

    CONGRADULATIONS.XXX

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