Almost three weeks ago on January 11, 2021 – AJ and I tied the knot.
During a pandemic.
After about 3 days of being officially engaged.
Are we crazy? My answer – absolutely not.
It was the most stress free, happy filled morning and I would not have wanted it to play out any differently. We went with the flow, and I don’t know about him, but I was in total disbelief as to how perfect it all turned out!
We had spoken about marriage before, and knew we didn’t want a super big wedding. Our parents are literally in 4 different states all over the US, and then you throw COVID into the mix, and it just wasn’t going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future. Not even something small like we had thought considered for a split second.
The morning of January 11th we called the deeds office at 8am and scheduled a 9:30am appointment. At 9am when the magistrates office opened, we locked in an 11am time slot and by 11:15am, we were married. Aside from everything perfectly falling into place without even having to stress anything, I had an impromptu idea of creating a zoom meeting for our marriage with the magistrate. The meeting invite went out at 9am and come 11am when we logged in, basically everyone was on! The pages were filled with parents, grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends that are like family! It was absolutely beautiful to see so many of our loved ones on the zoom call. From Miami, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, Louisiana, all the way to Germany! It just all came together as if we had planned it months in advance. Words will never be able to express how much it meant to see everyone on that zoom call. Shoutout to Zoom for connecting us all and being sooo user friendly!
One thing we regret is not planning at least a day in advance, so we could have invited family in California, it would have been way too last minute, so early in the morning for them. That and not having a registry, because I never would have thought not having a registry would put me in such an awkward position. Our home is completely furnished, and the only thing we haven’t been able to do is travel together as much as we’d like and we’re working towards saving to buy a house at our next duty station. The only thing we could do with more of is additions to our travel & saving funds. But I have no idea how to say that to anyone. So I’m still stuck on how to best answer the “do you have a registry question.”
To everyone that was able to join our zoom call wedding. THANK YOU for taking time out of your day, unplanned, and sharing that moment with us. [Literally was over in less than 10 minutes, 5 of which I was saying hi and bye to everyone.] Thank you to the awesome ladies at the vital records office and our wonderful Magistrate here in Carthage, NC. Your kindness did not go unnoticed.
<3 AJ & Jacklyn
Update: If you insist on showering us with love, the best I can say is hello Zelle: idkjacklyn@gmail.com if not, we still love you and are grateful you’re in our lives. Just buy us a drink next time we’re in town! Better yet, drink on us.
Also, changing your name in North Carolina is a mission. I do not wish it upon anyone. At least not during COVID. I will link my post about “What to do once you’re married in North Carolina – Name Change Edition” as soon as I finish the process! <3