We all deserve some good news amid all this craziness. A couple from Illinois surprised their families with a wedding ceremony in their kitchen, after the pandemic forced them to cancel their original plan.
Ashley Wells and Cody Wells had originally planned to elope to Las Vegas with their son Sean, but those plans fell through they and were keen to still keep the date.
Ashley Wells married husband Cody in a surprise ceremony in her living room (Ashley Wells/PA)
After the outbreak worsened, instead of cancelling the wedding entirely, the couple decided Ashley's step-mother Brooke Meritt would marry them in a surprise ceremony in their kitchen/living room.
They gathered their families under a "virtual pajama party" rouse.
“I wanted to still keep the date, since by now I have created an email address with my new last name and the date, and I have ordered items with our wedding name and date on it," she said.
“We went to our local courthouse last week and got a marriage license, so I got to get married in my pajamas with tacos and champagne. My dad also got the opportunity to 'walk me down the hallway.'"
The family was invited to the ceremony under the ruse of a coronavirus pajama party (Ashley Wells, PA)
“At first I was very upset and didn't want to get married, but now, I couldn't have been more excited. This was perfect, and totally our style. We made the best of the situation."
The couple were married in front of a small group of family and celebrated with tacos and doughnuts.
The couple was married by Ashley's step-mother, an ordained minister (Ashley Wells/PA)
“It was incredibly short and sweet. And now they're married, that's the main thing. It was perfectly chaotic which is par for the course for our family," Meritt said.
“One of Ashley's younger sisters was insistent that she knew something was going on. She was very confident that she was on to a secret plan. When she found out it was a wedding, she said 'I did not have it figured out at all.'"
The couple with their son, Sean (Ashley Wells/PA)
“I definitely did not expect to be marrying someone in the family kitchen, but these are difficult times and if anyone can make the best of things it's this family."
“Everyone so, so very happy and shocked," Ashley said.
“One of my sisters thought she had the whole plan figured out – she did not. It wasn't until Brooke said 'surprise, it's a wedding,' for everyone to really know what was going on."
In the state of Illinois, as of Wednesday, March 25, 1,525 people had been diagnosed with the virus.
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