The Virus Nixed Their Wedding Plans. Then a Pal Stepped Up

Friend married NYC couple on sidewalk from his 4th-floor apartment window
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 23, 2020 12:30 PM CDT

There hasn't been much uplifting news during the coronavirus outbreak, but there was at least one bright spot amid the pandemic last week in New York City. NBC News reports on the plight of 28-year-old Reilly Jennings and Amanda Wheeler, 38, who'd planned on getting married in October but suddenly found those plans upended due to concerns about travel, the possible closure of their venue, and the loss of income they suffered after the gym where Wheeler worked closed. And so they applied for their marriage license on Thursday and were about to head out to tie the knot Friday when they heard bad news—Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city's Marriage Bureau was closing indefinitely. The couple frantically texted pals to see if any were certified to officiate their nuptials. Enter Matt Wilson, who agreed to do the deed.

Jennings and Wheeler, who met at a gym in 2013, donned their wedding attire and headed over to Washington Heights, where Wilson conducted the ceremony from the window of his fourth-floor apartment. The couple stood on the sidewalk below, with a few friends present but at safe distances, as per CDC recommendations. In a video posted on Instagram—portions of which can be seen in a Good Morning America clip—Wilson read an excerpt from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera before pronouncing the couple wed. "What a day," Jennings wrote. "Amidst the uncertainty and despair we all feel right now, marrying the love of my life in the most NYC moment was perfect." The honeymoon was also guided by society's new normal: The couple dragged their mattress into the living room to hunker down for some Netflix and chill. (More coronavirus stories.)

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