money Utah Couple Holds a Drive-In Wedding Due to Coronavirus as Guests Listen on Their Car Radios
With the coronavirus outbreak forcing the cancellation of weddings around the country, one Utah couple decided to go forward with their nuptials — complete with guests, who watched — and listened! — from the comfort and safety of their cars.
Brennan and Abby Norman realized last month that their wedding set for April 25 wouldn’t be able to go on as planned.
“We knew things had to change,” the groom tells PEOPLE. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to have a reception. We knew we weren’t going to be able to have any sort of parties or major gatherings when they started shutting down all the schools.”
When they came up with the idea of a drive-in wedding in Morgan, Utah, guests were “shocked,” says Brennan.
“They didn’t know how a drive-in wedding was going to work,” he says. “Neither did we, though!”
RELATED: What to Do If Coronavirus Forces You to Cancel Your Wedding, According to Experts
Preslee and Maryn Norman Brennan and Abby Norman
And since their honeymoon was canceled and they weren’t going to have a huge reception anyway, the bride and groom, both 21, decided to move up the date to April 10.
“We were like, ‘Why would we wait?’ ” says Brennan.
RELATED: Michigan Couple Holds Wedding with Cardboard Cutout Guests amid Coronavirus
The location was picked out and set up the night before the wedding — and they even figured out how to allow their guests to listen in on the ceremony, to everything from the music as Abby walked down the aisle to their vows.
Brennan connected with a friend who puts on a huge Christmas decoration display each year, complete with lights that sync up to music. With his advice and help from employees at a local Radio Shack, he used a FM transmitter so guests could turn on a specific radio station from their car stereos to tune in.
Tsering Lazerson Brennan and Abby Norman’s drive-in wedding
Brennan’s close friend Tsering Lazerson was in one of the about 30 cars in attendance. He tells PEOPLE that it was very organized, with someone directing each vehicle where to park.
“It was still super pretty, even from the car,” Lazerson says of the wedding space, an open field decorated with just a simple set of doors surrounded by flowers against a backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.
And Brennan adds that one of the biggest surprises of the day was the “perfect” weather.
“It was a miracle that it was super sunny and 65 degrees out, because we’re in Utah and it’s still cold and rainy all the time,” he tells PEOPLE.
Preslee and Maryn Norman Brennan and Abby Norman
Guests shot photos with their phones and congratulated the newlyweds with a fitting send-off.
“At the end, they got in a car and left, but we all honked our horns and shouted instead of clapping,” Lazerson says.
Preslee and Maryn Norman Brennan and Abby Norman
Brennan says he and Abby plan to have a honeymoon and reception when things return to normal.
Despite the last-minute changes and unexpected format, the wedding “exceeded” the couple’s hopes — plus, the benefit of not worrying about decorations, feeding guests and all the other details that come with planning nuptials made it “probably one of the least stressful weddings ever.”
“It was just, we show up at 4 o’clock, and my now-wife would walk down the aisle and we’d get married in this gorgeous valley we live in,” he says. “It was actually very easy.”
Lazerson says, “It’s proof you can still have a super awesome wedding even though you have to remain socially distant.”
As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments. To help provide doctors and nurses on the front lines with life-saving medical resources, donate to Direct Relief here.
